An important moment—The history of the Arabs in their influence on the intellectual life of Europe—The school of Toledo—Scot fixes his residence in that city—The name and fame of Aristotle—Scot engages in translating Arabic versions of the works of Aristotle on Natural History—The _De Animalibus_ and its connection with the _Physionomia_—The _Abbreviatio Avicennae_ and its relation to former versions of the Toledo school—The date when Scot finished this work.—Frederick’s interest in these books—The _De partibus animalium_—Did Scot know Greek?—How the Arabian Natural History contrasts with the modern—Toledo, 42 CHAPTER IV Alchemy: its history, both primitive and derivative—The Gnostics influence it, and it passes by way of the Syrians to the Arabs—Disputes divide their schools in the twelfth century regarding the reality of this art—Spain the scene of this activity and the place where alchemy began to become known among the Latins—The time when the work of translation commenced, and the course it followed—Scot’s position in the history of this art, and an examination of his chemical works: the spurious _De natura solis et lunae_, the _Magisterium_, the _Liber Luminis Luminum_, and the _De Alchimia_, 65 CHAPTER V Connection between alchemy and astronomy—Scot’s interest in the latter science—Toledo a favourable place for such study—Progress made by the Moors in astronomy—Scot translates Alpetrongi—Relation of this author to those who had preceded him: to Albategni; to Al Khowaresmi and to Alfargan—The fresh contributions made by Alpetrongi to a theory of the heavenly motions—His solution of the problems of recession and solstitial change—The date of Scot’s version of the _Sphere_, and its possible coincidence with that of the great astronomical congress at Toledo, 96 CHAPTER VI Averroës of Cordova and the fame he enjoyed among the Latins—His works condemned by the Church—Frederick II. likely to have been attracted by this philosophy—Michael Scot at Cordova—Constitution of a new College at Toledo under imperial patronage for the purpose of translating the works of Averroës into Latin—Correspondence between this and the similar enterprise of a hundred years before—Andrew the Jew interprets for Scot—Defence of this literary method—Versions of the _De Coelo et Mundo_, the _De anima_, the _Parva Naturalia_ and others—The _Quaestiones Nicolai Peripatetici_: with a summary of this important treatise—Works found in the Venice manuscript—The _Nova Ethica_—Michael Scot shines as a translator from the Greek—Comparison between him and Bacon in regard to this, 106 CHAPTER VII