Michael Scot was an astrologer, alchemist, and translator of Arabic and Hebrew works into Latin. Born in Scotland late in the twelfth century, he spent most of his active life in Toledo, Palermo, and mainland Italy—perhaps at Rome. He first appears with any degree of certainty at Toledo in 1217, when he finished a translation of al-Bītrogī's (Alpetragius's) Liber Astronomiae (On the spheres). The next certain date is 1220, when he is reported to have completed a Latin translation of Aristotle's Historia Animalium, probably at Toledo. He seems to have become favorably known at the papal court, for he was offered the archbishopric of Cashel in Ireland in 1225. He refused the office because of his ignorance of Gaelic. Probably during this period he produced the translation of Aristotle's De Caelo et Mundo, along with several other physical works of...