CHAPTER VI 



SCOT TRANSLATES AVERROES 



WE have already noticed how the commentaries of 

 Avicenna on Aristotle had been translated into 

 Latin at Toledo during the twelfth century, and 

 how Michael Scot had completed that work by his 

 version of the books relating to Natural History. 

 Since the beginning of the thirteenth century, how- 

 ever, another Arabian author of the first rank had 

 become the object of much curiosity in Europe. 

 This was the famous Averroes of Cordova, whose 

 history might fill a volume, so full was it of romantic 

 adventure and literary interest. 1 He was but lately 

 dead, having closed a long and laborious life on the 

 10th of December 1198, at Morocco, where his body 

 was first laid to rest in the cemetery outside the 

 gate of Tagazout. Born at Cordova in 1126, his 

 name was closely associated with that of his native 

 city, so that after three months had elapsed his 

 corpse was brought thither from Africa, and given 

 honourable and final burial in the tomb of his fathers 

 at the cemetery of Ibn Abbas. 



Two reasons combined to raise the fame of 

 Averroes among the Latins, and to inspire them 

 with a high curiosity regarding his works. He was 



1 For the life and opinions of Averroes, see the excellent monograph 

 Averroes et V Averroisme, which Renan published at Paris in 1866. I 

 have drawn largely upon it in composing this chapter. 



106 



