Editing Michael Scot (section)

==In legend==
The legendary Michael Scot used to feast his friends with dishes brought by spirits from the royal kitchens of France and Spain and other lands.

He is said to have turned a [[coven]] of witches to stone, which have become the [[stone circle]] of [[Long Meg and Her Daughters]] in [[Cumbria]].

Scot's reputation as a [[Magician (paranormal)|magician]] had already become fixed in the age immediately following his own. He appears in [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', the only [[Scot]] to do so,<ref>
{{cite news
| last         = Dalrymple
| first        = William
| date=9 January 2021
| title        = William Dalrymple on Sicily's Islamic past
| url          = https://www.ft.com/content/dc14c6b6-b7d4-440a-8ca3-56fcbb1e4fb2
}}</ref> in the fourth bolgia located in the Eighth Circle of Hell, reserved for sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets who claimed they could see the future when they, in fact, could not.<ref>[[Dante Alighieri|Alighieri, Dante]] (c. 1320) ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', canto xx. 115–117</ref> He is described by Dante as being "spare in the flank" (''ne' fianchi è cosi poco'').<ref>Kay 1985, p. 2.</ref> While some argue that this is the "sole extant description of his physical appearance",<ref>Thorndike 1965, pp. 11–12, cited in Kay 1985, p. 4.</ref> others contend that the description is more poetic. Richard Kay argues that because "the shades in the Dantesque afterworld create surrogate aerial bodies for themselves that are a projection of [their] soul[s]", this description is in reference to "some internal character trait to which [Dante] wished to draw our attention."<ref>Kay 1985, p. 4.</ref> Kay argues that Dante was referencing a physiognomic description taken from Scot's own ''Liber physiognomiae'' – namely, that thin and small ribs signify an individual "who is weak, who does little labour, who is sagacious, [and] bad" (the original Latin, found in chapter 88 of the ''Liber physiognomiae'', reads: {{lang|la|Cuius costae sunt subtiles et paruae}} […] ''significat hominem debilem, pauci laboris, sagacem'' [''et''] ''malum'').<ref>Kay 1985, p. 5.</ref>

Scot also had a particular reputation for his ability to predict the future. [[Salimbene di Adam|Fra Salimbene]] makes a comparison between Asdente of Parma, a cobbler who predicted the death of [[Pope Nicholas III|Nicholas III]] and election of [[Pope Martin IV|Martin IV]], and the " Abbot Joachim, Merlin, Methodius, the Sibyls, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Daniel, the Apocalypse, and Michael the Scot."<ref>{{Cite book |last=di Adam |first=Salimbene |title=Cronica |publisher=Laterza |year=1966 |location=Bari |pages=749–50 |language=it}}</ref>

[[Giovanni Boccaccio]] represents him in the same character, and [[Pico della Mirandola|Giovanni Pico della Mirandola]] arraigns him severely in his work against astrology, while [[Gabriel Naudé]] finds it necessary to defend his good name in his ''Apologie pour tous les grands personages faussement soupçonnez de magie''.

In [[John Leyden]]'s ballad ''Lord Soulis'', Michael Scot is credited with teaching magic to the protagonist, the evil sorcerer [[William II de Soules]], who ends up being boiled alive.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://literaryballadarchive.com/PDF/Leyden_4_Lord_Soulis_f.pdf |title=Lord Soulis |author=John Leyden |work=British Literary Ballads Archive |access-date=8 April 2014}}</ref><ref name=br>{{cite web |url=http://www.britainexpress.com/scotland/castles/hermitage-castle.htm |title=Hermitage Castle |author=David Ross |work=Britain Express |access-date=3 April 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/s/williamdesoulis.html |title=William de Soulis |work=Undiscovered Scotland |access-date=3 April 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140727092549/http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/s/williamdesoulis.html |archive-date=27 July 2014}}</ref>

[[Sir Walter Scott]] deploys Michael Scott (sic) in his ''[[The Lay of the Last Minstrel]]''. In Footnotes 12/13, he credits him with conquering an indefatigable demon, after it had succeeded in splitting [[Eildon Hill]] into its three distinctive cones, by challenging it to weave ropes from sea-salt. He records that in the [[Scottish Borders]] any work of great labour or antiquity is ascribed either to Auld Michael, or [[Sir William Wallace]], or the Devil.

He is the title character in the play ''The Warld's Wonder'' by [[Alexander Reid (playwright)|Alexander Reid]].