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 1921 OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK II 347 training in the philosophical methods of the age. Legitur in pluribus libris philosophorum, we read at the beginning of the chapter on the relative size of male and female birds (ii. 2), but its discussions of humours and complexions shows the influence, not merely, as Niese says, 1 of the physiognomic writers, but of the whole physiological tradition of the period ; certainly the physiognomic element is not sufficient to support Niese's con- jecture of the collaboration of Michael Scot, who died probably before 1236, 2 and whose Liber Phisionomie, dedicated to the emperor, 3 shows no parallelisms with the De Arte. At one point 4 there is a citation of the pseudo -Aristotelian Mechanics, which has not hitherto been noted in a medieval version either Arabic or Latin. 5 2. Existing works on the art of falconry, Frederick charac- terizes as incorrect and badly written (mendaces et insufficienter composites), at best dealing in rude fashion with certain small portions of the subject (particule aliquot). 6 This earlier literature in Latin and the Romance vernaculars 7 is known to us only in fragmentary and confused form : the letters to Ptolemy and Theodosius, the book of the enigmatical King Dancus, 8 the puzzling references made by Frederick's contemporaries, Albertus Magnus and Daude de Pradas, 9 to King Roger's falconer, William, 10 and to the ' book of King Henry of England '. n Further study 1 Historische Zeitschrift, cviii. 510 n. 2 Henry d'Avranches, in Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, xviii. 482 ff. ; R. Forster, De Aristotelis quae feruntur Secretis Secretorum (Kiel, 1888), p. 29. 3 Various editions ; I have used Hain 14546*, in possession of Dr. E. C. Streeter of Boston, Mass. Cf. Forster, loc. cit. ; Brown, Michael Scot, p. 39. 4 * Portiones circuli quas faciunt singule penne sunt de circumferentiis equidistan- tibus, et ilia que facit portionem maioris ambitus et magis distat a corpore avis iuvat magis sublevari aut impelli et deportari, quod dicit Aristotiles in libro de ingeniis levandi pondera dicens quod magis facit levari pondus maior circulus,' MS. M, fos. 23 v -4; MS. B, p. 89, ed. Schneider, p. 36. See Mechanica, ed. Apelt (Leipzig, 1888), especially cc. 1, 3, ed. Bekker, pp. 848-50. 6 Steinschneider, Hebrdische Uebersetzungen, p. 229 f. ; id., in Centralblatt fur Bibliothekswesen, Beiheft 12, p. 74 ; Grabmann, Aristotelesubersetzungen, pp. 200-4, 248 f., does not mention this among the pseudo- Aristotelian works translated under Manfred. 6 Preface, supra. 7 See in general Werth, in Zeitschrift fur romanische Philologie, xii. 146-71. Which of the Romance languages are reflected in the vocabulary of the De Arte is a question that must be left to the philologists. • For this I have used the Latin text in MS. Vat. Lat. 5366, fos. 34-40 v. 9 Since Werth wrote, a complete text of Daude de Pradas, Lo romans dels auzels cassadors, has been edited from the Barberini MS. by Monaci, in Studi romanzi, v. 65-192 (1891). 10 Supra, p. 341 ; Werth, xii. 157-9, xiii. 11. I hope to study this problem more particularly on the basis of the Latin text. 11 En un libre del rei Enric d'Anclaterra lo pros el ric, que amet plus ausels e cas que non fes anc nuill crestias. Daude de Pradas, ed. Monaci, 11. 1930 ff. : ed. Sachs (Brandenburg, 1865), 11. 1905 ff.