212 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



we are deprived of his notes on the passage which 

 refers to Michael Scot. In the Decamerone, how- 

 ever, he treats the subject in a passing way ; making 

 a citizen of Bologna speak of the magician's resi- 

 dence in that town. 1 Scot, he said, had performed 

 many prodigies there, to the delight of sundry 

 gentlemen his friends, and at their request had, 

 on his departure, left behind him two scholars, who 

 kept up fairly the traditions of his art. This seems 

 to indicate that Boccaccio had in mind the stories 

 told by the other commentators on Dante, and the 

 tone of his novel supports the conjecture that he 

 agreed with the great poet and with Da Buti, in 

 regarding these prodigies as pertaining to the de- 

 partment of fictitious magic. 



More interesting, perhaps, are the tales which 

 involve Michael the magician with the fates of his 

 great master, Frederick u. In the Paradiso degli 

 Alberti, 2 for example, we read how, at the feast 

 given by the Emperor to celebrate his coronation at 

 Rome, which had taken place on November 22, 1220, 

 the company were entertained by a strange event. 

 They were just in the act of washing their hands 

 before sitting down to table in the great hall at 

 Palermo. The pages were still on foot with ewers 

 and basins of perfumed water and embroidered 

 towels, when suddenly Michael Scot appeared with 

 a companion, both of them dressed in Eastern robes, 

 and offered to show the guests a marvel. The 

 weather was oppressively warm, so Frederick asked 

 him to procure them a shower of rain which might 

 bring coolness. This the magicians accordingly did, 



1 In the ninth novel of the eighth day. 



2 Wessdo/sky, Bologna, 1867, vol. ii. pp. 180-217. 



