SCOT AGAIN AT COURT 141 



If the philosopher did not actually take such 

 extreme measures with the creatures of his brain 

 and pen, the versions he brought to Sicily were at 

 least suppressed in the meantime, being concealed 

 in the imperial closet till a more suitable oppor- 

 tunity should occur for their publication. This 

 done, their author devoted himself to pursuits less 

 likely to attract unfavourable notice than those in 

 which he had been lately engaged. 



The place and duty which most naturally offered 

 themselves to Scot were those of the Court 

 Astrologer. We have seen him occupied in this 

 way already, before he left Palermo for Spain, and 

 there seems no reason to doubt the tradition which 

 says that such was indeed the standing occupation 

 of his life, and one which he resumed at once on his 

 return. To this application of celestial science the 

 opinion of the times attached no sinister interpreta- 

 tion, and Scot, finding himself the object of suspicion 

 on account of his late studies and achievements, 

 must have fallen back with a sense of security, 

 strange as it may seem, upon the casting of horo- 

 scopes and the forming of presages founded on the 

 flight of birds and the motion of animals. l 



It is therefore in all likelihood to this period 

 in his life that we are to ascribe several works on 

 astrology and kindred subjects which bear the 

 name of Scot. They may have come from his pen 

 by way of supplement to the doctrine which he 

 had expounded so many years before in the Liber 



1 Scot reckoned twelve signs in augury answering to the twelve 

 celestial houses. Six came from the right hand : Fernova, fervetus, 

 confer t, amponenth, scimasarnova, scimasarvetus ; and six from the 

 left : Confernova, confervetus, viaram, harenan, scassarnova, scassarvetus. 

 See the Physionomia, chap. Ivi. 



