[53] Bodl. MS. 266, chart. in fol. saec. xv. 218 leaves; Bibl. Nat. Paris, Nouv. acq. 1401; the Escorial has another MS. of this work on paper, in writing of the fourteenth century. The Liber Introductorius commences thus: ‘Quicumque vult esse bonus astrologus’—an expression which betrays the churchman in Scot. It closes with these words: ‘finitur tractatus de notitia pronosticorum.’ Extracts from the Liber Introductorius are found in the MS. Fondo Vaticano 4087, p. 38, ro. and vo., MS. in fol. chart. saec. xvi., and in the Bibl. del Seminario Vescovile, Padua, MS. 48, in fol. chart. saec. xiv.; also Bibl. Ambros, Milan, MS. I. 90.
[54] The Paris MS. reads ‘in Astronomia,’ a good example of the confusion mentioned above.
[55] ‘Leviter.’
[56] This is a mistake common to both the MSS. Innocent IV. did not begin to reign till 1243, when Scot was long in his grave. Innocent III., who was Pope from 1198-1216, is the person meant. He was guardian to Frederick II. during his minority.
[57] According to the line: ‘Lingua, Tropus, Ratio, Numerus, Tonus, Angulus, Astra,’ in which the Trivium and Quadrivium were succinctly and memorably expressed.
[58] His mother was nearly fifty years old at his birth.
[59] See the description of this palace in the poem by Peter of Eboli.
[60] Zurita says that Sancia, the Queen Dowager of Aragon, claimed the crown of Sicily for her son Fernando, in case there were no heir of Frederick II. by Constance.
[61] See on this whole subject three most learned and satisfactory works by Prof. R. Foerster of Breslau—De Arist. quae feruntur physiognomonicis recensendis, Kiliae, 1882; De trans. lat. physiognomonicorum, Kiliae, 1884; and especially his Scriptores Graeci Physiognomonici, Teubner, 1894.
[62] A Physionomia ascribed to Al Mansour himself was commented on by Jacopo da Samminiato. It is preserved in the Bibl. Naz. of Florence, MS. xx. 55.