The Merlin to the Emperor’s Arthur
Michael Scot mixed necromancy with astrology, and thus is believed to have said many truths
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Eighty-nine years after his death, Michael Scot was banished to the eighth circle of Hell. His spot was reserved in Bolgia Four, amid the sorcerers, seers and astrologers. Virgil introduces the notable residents one by one -- Amphiaraus, Tiresias, Aruns, Manto, Eryphylus, Guido Bonatti and Asdente.
When he arrives at Scot, the description is lean, both by word count and appearance. “That other who is so spare in the flanks was Michael Scot,” explains Dante’s guide the afterworld, “who truly knew the game of magic frauds.”
How, precisely, the ancient Roman poet knew about the scholar some 1,300 years his junior is never explained. How Scot entered the author’s radar, on the other hand, is far more easily understood. In Dante’s day, Scot was a well-known figure, albeit one that had transcended his earthly accomplishments in favor of a far more mythical status.
Penned a half-century after the publication The Divine Comedy, The Decameron spends more time painting the figure in a similar light as Dante. “[N]ote that Michael Scot mixed necromancy with astrology, and thus is believed to have said many truths,” writes Boccaccio. “For he predicted certain things about some Italian cities which we have seen come true.”
What is known about Scot’s life is, at best, fragmentary and at worst, constructed whole cloth after his death in 1232 (or thereabouts). We do know that he began his career as a translator of Arabic (likely learned in Toledo), Greek and Latin, specializing in the works of Aristotle. An ordained priest, he was named magister by Pope Honorius III, who appointed him archbishop of Cashel, Ireland. His successor, Pope Gregory IX, latter appointed Scot the archbishop Canterbury.
Fibonacci dedicated an edition of Liber Abaci to Scot, for his role in the development of his eponymous mathematical sequence. He notably pioneered physiognomy in the Middle Ages, identified the phenomenon of multiple rainbows and served as a court science adviser to Frederick II. Scot also functioned as the Emperor’s court astrologer, one of myriad occult sciences he counted among his studies, including a keen focus on alchemy.
There remain many questions about precisely which texts and breakthroughs are rightfully attributed to Scot during his life. But after death, his penchant for the occult gave rise to an entirely new Michael Scot.
A combination of those studies and some genuine mathematical breakthroughs transformed him into “the Merlin to the Emperor’s Arthur,” per 1897’s An Enquiry into The Life and Legend of Michael Scot. In one particularly enduring legend, he transformed a coven of witches into stone, creating Northwest England’s bronze age stone circle, Long Meg and Her Daughters, in the process. He was also credited with training William II de Soules in the dark arts. Another real life figure mythologized as an evil sorcerer after death, de Soules was said to have been boiled in lead.
Scot’s own legendary demise, was decidedly less grisly, but no less dramatic. Among the powers he was said to have attained in his life was the ability to predict death. He was, according to legend, able to foresee Frederick’s end – though he managed to miss a few key details that ended in the Emperor’s demise, as “the devil almost always tricks by ambiguity,” according to Boccaccio.
He predicted his own, as well, according to The Decameron, but once again proved unable to avoid that ultimate fate.
But Michael is also said to have foreseen his own death, which he could not evade: he had foreseen himself dying from the impact of a small stone of an exact weight which was to fall on his head. He took precautions by always wearing an iron skullcap beneath his hood. But just once whilst entering Church for the feast of Corpus Domini, he took off his skullcap with his hood, more so as not to be remarked by the crowd, I believe, than from love of Christ, for whom he cared little. And suddenly a small stone fell upon his naked head, slightly wounding his scalp. After picking it up and weighing it, Michael discovered it was exactly the weight he had predicted, and now certain of his death, he ordered his affairs, and died of that wound.
Sources
The Spare Ribs of Dante's Michael Scot https://www.jstor.org/stable/40166404?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
Michael Scot and Frederick II https://www.jstor.org/stable/224248?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3A0e92554fa3f9d9501828feef51313912&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Michael Scot and the Four Rainbows https://www.academia.edu/38175479/Michael_Scot_and_the_Four_Rainbows
An Enquiry into The Life and Legend of Michael Scot https://www.gutenberg.org/files/55280/55280-h/55280-h.htm