THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT EDINBURGH: Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE FOR DAVID DOUGLAS LONDON SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT AND CO., LTD. CAMBRIDGE MACMILLAN AND BOWES GLASGOW JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS [Illustration] An Enquiry into The Life and Legend of Michael Scot BY REV. J. WOOD BROWN, M.A. AUTHOR OF ‘AN ITALIAN CAMPAIGN,’ ‘THE COVENANTERS OF THE MERSE,’ ETC. [Illustration: ‘Michael next ordered that Eildon Hill, which was then a uniform cone, should be divided into three.’—_Lay of Last Minstrel, note._] EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS 1897 [_All rights reserved_] D. D. D. ALMAE MATRI SUAE EDINBURGENSI HAUD IMMEMOR AUCTOR PREFACE After some considerable time spent in making collections for the work which is now submitted to the public, I became aware that a biography of Michael Scot was in existence which had been composed as early as the close of the sixteenth century. This is the work of Bernardino Baldi of Urbino, who was born in 1553. He studied medicine at Padua, but soon turned his attention to mathematics, especially to the historical developments of that science. Taking holy orders, he became Abbot of Guastalla in 1586, and in the quiet of that cloister found time to produce his work ‘De le vite de Matematici’ of which the biography of Scot forms a part. He died in 1617.