Michael Scot

In wonderful condition. Likely to have been well shelved and kept from the beginning. Exceedingly rare in the first edition in this condition. Pages are bright, unmarked, clean. Literally two small spotting marks if you look for them, no other marking or tanning. Remarkably pristine. DJ is unclipped, and in an excellent state. The most very minor of shelf wear here and there. Boards clean and tight. All quite remarkably well preserved. Hard to imagine a better copy exists. See photos.First edition first printing.143pp illus

Thorndike's classic biography of Michael Scot, the leading Alchemist, physician, astrologer and divine of his age. His insistence on experience & his allusions to experiments influenced the methods later used by Grosseteste and Roger Bacon. But he also delighted in `adulterine arts such as the interpretation of dreams, auguries and lots'. Born in Scotland in about 1175, he is thought to have studied at Oxford, and very likely both taught and studied at the University of Paris. As a translator Michael.is now seen to have been of the greatest importance, reforming the translations of Aristotlean metaphysics and natural philosophy, and acquainting the Latin world with recent Arab thought, including the commentaries of Averroes on Aristotle.