SCOT, MICHAEL (? 1175—C. 1232), Scottish translator, mathematician and astrologer. He studied at Oxford and Paris, and after being ordained, held various benefices in Italy, but re fused the appointment of archbishop of Cashel in Ireland. Having acquired a knowledge of Arabic at Toledo, he became one of the scholars of the court of Frederick II., and at the instigation of the emperor superintended (along with Hermannus Alemannus) a fresh translation of Aristotle and the Arabian commentaries from Arabic into Latin. The chief of these were the De Animalibus, the De anima, the De coelo, and probably the Physics and the Metaphysics, and also the De Sphaera of Al Bitrogi. Scot's own books, dealing almost exclusively with astrology, alchemy and the occult sciences generally, are mainly responsible for the develop ment of the Michael Scot legend. Chief among these are Super auctorem spherae (pr. Bologna 1495, Venice 1631) ; De sole et tuna (pr. Strassburg 1622), the De chiromantia, an opuscule often published in the 15th century; De physiognomia et de hoininis procreatione (18 editions between 1477 and 166o).
Around his own death many legends gathered. He was supposed to have foretold that he would end by a blow from a stone of not more than two ounces in weight, and that to protect himself he wore an iron helmet, and that, raising this in church at the elevation of the host, the fatal stone fell on him from the roof. Italian tradition says he died in Italy; other accounts place his death in his native country, and his burial at Holme Cultram in Cumberland or in Melrose Abbey. In the notes to Scott's Lay of
the Last Minstrel, of which the opening of the wizard's tomb forms the most striking episode, Scott recounts the exploits attributed by popular belief to the magician. "In the south of Scotland any work of great labour and antiquity is ascribed either to the agency of Auld Michael, of Sir William Wallace or the devil." He used to feast his friends with dishes brought by spirits from the royal kitchens of France and Spain and other lands. On an embassy to France he brought the French monarch to his knees by the stamp ing of his horse's hoof, the first ringing the bells of Notre Dame and the second causing the towers of the palace to fall. Other powers and exploits are narrated in Folengo's Macaronic poem of Merlin Coccaius (1595).. Michael's reputation as a magician was early established. He appears in the Inferno of Dante (canto xx. 115-117) among the magicians and soothsayers. He is repre sented in the same character by Boccaccio.
See J. Wood Brown, Life and Legend of Michael Scot (1897) P. Duhem, Le Systeme du Monde t. III. (1917) ; C. Haskens, "Michael Scot and Frederick II." in Isis (1921) and Studies in the Hist. of Mediaeval Science (Cambridge, 1924) ; L. Thorndike, Hist. of Magic and Experimental Science (vol. 2, 1924).