Each sphere, said Alpetrongi, has its own poles, which differ from those of the primum mobile, and thus each, while following the motion of the ninth sphere, accomplishes at the same time another revolution about its own proper poles. From the combination of these two movements arises one of the nature of a spiral which fully accounts for the seeming deviations of the heavenly bodies to north or south.[146]
Such were the contributions of this philosopher to the astronomy of his time. They were the fruit, he assures us, of patient study of the ancients, and specially of Aristotle and his commentators. He offered them to his age as a distinct improvement on the cumbrous theories of Ptolemy, and as an advance even upon that of Azarchel, whom, in the main, he acknowledges as his master in science. Antiquated and childish as his explanations may seem to us, we cannot help feeling that he had at least grasped firmly some of the chief problems of the sky. He stood in the line of that inquiry and patient progress which have issued in the marvellous discoveries of later times.
Scot’s version of the Sphere of Alpetrongi has reached us accompanied by the date of its composition; a distinction which belongs to only one other among his translations, that of the Abbreviatio Avicennae. M. Jourdain had the merit of being the first who drew attention to this fortunate circumstance,[147] and he did so by quoting the colophons of two manuscripts of the Sphere discovered by him in the Paris library.[148] One of these closes thus: ‘Praised be Jesus Christ who liveth for ever throughout all time:[149] on the eighteenth day of August, being Friday, at the third hour, cum aboleolente,[150] in the year one thousand two hundred and fifty-five.’ The other gives the date thus: ‘The year of the Incarnation of Christ twelve hundred and seventeen.’ These two epochs coincide exactly, as the apparent difference arises from the date being expressed in the first manuscript according to the era of Spain. It is therefore doubly certain that Scot’s version of the Sphere of Alpetrongi was made in the year 1217.[151]
In completing this translation Michael Scot anticipated by one year only the great astronomical congress which the King of Castile presently caused to assemble at Toledo. It may very possibly therefore have been one of the versions prepared with a view to this great occasion and designed for the use of the Latin astronomers who might come there. Certain it is that the author was not less fortunate in this than in his previous literary ventures. The text was well chosen, the time of publication opportune, and the Sphere of Alpetrongi as it came from Scot’s hand had a wide circulation and influenced profoundly the astronomical beliefs of the day.[152]
CHAPTER VI
SCOT TRANSLATES AVERROËS
We have already noticed how the commentaries of Avicenna on Aristotle had been translated into Latin at Toledo during the twelfth century, and how Michael Scot had completed that work by his version of the books relating to Natural History. Since the beginning of the thirteenth century, however, another Arabian author of the first rank had become the object of much curiosity in Europe. This was the famous Averroës of Cordova, whose history might fill a volume, so full was it of romantic adventure and literary interest.[153] He was but lately dead, having closed a long and laborious life on the 10th of December 1198, at Morocco, where his body was first laid to rest in the cemetery outside the gate of Tagazout. Born at Cordova in 1126, his name was closely associated with that of his native city, so that after three months had elapsed his corpse was brought thither from Africa, and given honourable and final burial in the tomb of his fathers at the cemetery of Ibn Abbas.
Two reasons combined to raise the fame of Averroës among the Latins, and to inspire them with a high curiosity regarding his works. He was known to have devoted his life to the study and exposition of Aristotle; then, as for many ages, the idol of the Christian schools. His philosophy was further understood to embody the strangest and most daring speculations regarding the origin of the universe and the nature of the soul. For these he had suffered severely at the hands of the Moslem orthodox. They had proscribed his works and compelled him to leave his employment and pass the most precious years of his life in exile.
These common impressions regarding Averroës were in the main correct. His labours had appeared in three forms; a paraphrase, and a lesser and greater commentary on the books of Aristotle, and the philosophy which these writings contained was undoubtedly Manichæan, if not in a measure Pantheistic. Like that of all the Arabian philosophers, to whose teaching Averroës gave its final and most characteristic form, this doctrine was really Greek: the Aristotelic scheme of the universe as it had been conceived anew by Porphyry of Alexandria. At the foundation lay a mighty Duality: that of the opposing powers of Good and Evil. With the notion of exalting Him above the possibility of blame, God, the Centre of the Universe, about whom all revolves, was declared to be the Absolute and unconditional Being; while over against Him was set Matter, also eternal, from which, in its stubborn resistance to the Divine Will, all evil had arisen. Any direct action of Deity upon matter could not be thought of; so the interval between them was conceived of as occupied by several Emanations proceeding from God, among which we may notice those of the Divine Wisdom and the Divine Power. This Wisdom was said to be impersonal; one common to all intelligent creatures; the Light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world. This Power was regarded as supreme, seated high above the spheres, and, through the Primum Mobile, entering into touch with matter and deriving its force downward from one heavenly circle to another till it reaches earth itself.