Such compositions were indeed far from being uncommon in Italy. The reputed prophecies of the Erythræan Sibyl were extant in the form of an epistle supposed to be addressed to the Greeks under the walls of Troy. This curious composition is said to have been rendered into the Greek language from the Syriac by a certain Doxopatros. His version was one of those volumes which had reached Sicily from the library of Manuel Comnenus Emperor of Constantinople, and was then translated into Latin during the twelfth century by Eugenio, admiral to King Roger. A series of poets from Giovacchino di Fiora[237] to Jacopone da Todi[238] then chose the prophetic lyre and made it resound with dark sayings and predictions of misfortune and ruin. Especially worthy of study in this connection are the verses ascribed to _Merlin_, which declare the fate of many Italian cities.[239] That Michael Scot gave his talents to this kind of composition rests on evidence as convincing as any which establishes the other events of his life. Pipini the chronicler says that ‘he was reputed to have the gift of prophecy, for he published verses in which he foretold the ruin of certain Italian cities as well as other circumstances.’[240] An earlier, indeed a contemporary, authority, Henry Abrincensis, in a poem presented to Frederick II. in 1235 or the early months of the following year, speaks of Michael Scot as ‘another Apollo,’ ‘a prophet of truth’ possessed of ‘hidden secrets’ and the author of ‘certain predictions regarding thee, O Caesar.’[241] Quotations from the prophecies of Scot were made by Villani.[242] The lines referring to Florence may still be read in a manuscript of the Riccardian Library in that city,[243] and in another, preserved in Padua,[244] we find the following title: ‘Here begin certain prophecies of Michael Scot, the most illustrious astrologer of Lord Frederick the Emperor, which declare somewhat of the future, to wit, of certain Italian cities.’ This shows that verses, bearing to have been composed by Scot, were current at an early date, though the scribe of the Paduan manuscript has forgotten to fulfil the promise he makes in his title, for that which follows it is not the poetry of Scot but only a dull treatise on Latin prosody. It is to Salimbene that we owe the preservation of these verses in their most complete form. He must have taken much interest in them, as he is careful to give, not only the original Latin, but an Italian translation as well. From his pages then we shall borrow the text of these curious lines.[245] According to Salimbene they are these: