346 THE ( DE ARTE VENANDI CUM AVIBUS' July the most careful he knows, 1 and one has only to read the first book to see that much of it rests upon minute and varied observa- tion. As a matter of fact, Aristotle is cited mainly where the author disagrees with him and seeks to correct him from personal experience : non sic se habet. 2 The Stagyrite is evidently viewed as a man of books, to whom the reader may be referred for learned detail, 3 but who has little or no practical knowledge of falcons and relies too much on hearsay. 4 To the author he is plainly not * the master of them that know ' birds. Nowhere does Frederick's emancipation from tradition and authority stand out more clearly than in his attitude towards Aristotle. 5 With the exception of Aristotle there are few specific citations, and an examination of the literary sources would require a wide range of reading, especially in the scientific literature of the Arabs. As regards general scientific knowledge, the author follows the traditional division into climates, the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth climates being called nostre regiones. 6 Outside the Mediterranean he mentions Britannia que vocatur Anglia, 7 and Iceland, the home of the gerfalcon, between Norway and Greenland. 8 The Aphorisms of Hippocrates are cited in one passage. 9 In mathematics he is acquainted with the nature of tangents 10 and the flgura quam geumetre dicunt piramidalem. 11 He fixes his seasons specifically by the progress of the sun through the zodiac. 12 His terminology and arrangement, as in the intro- ductory matter and the prologue to the second book, 13 show 1 Reliqua Librorum Friderici 11, ii. 41. 2 ' Quod ergo Aristotiles dicit in libro animalium, aves uncorum unguium idem sunt quod aves rapaces, non sic se habet,' MS. M, fo. 28 v , ed. Schneider, p. 43. ' Non est ergo verisimile quod scribitur ab Aristotile,' MS. M, fo. 16 v , ed. Schneider, p. 25. ' Non . . . ut dicit Aristotiles,' MS. M, fo. 15, ed. Schneider, p. 24. ' Quamvis Aristotiles dicat contrarium,' MS. M, fo. 20, ed. Schneider, p. 31. ' Licet dixerit Aristotiles,' MS. M, fo. 47 v , ed. Schneider, p. 72. 3 ' Quomodo autem generatur pullus in ovo et que membra ipsius prius apparent et formantur et quod tempus est aptius cubationi et per quantum tempus cubant aves et reliqua constantia circa hec preter mittimus, eo quod sufficienter dictum est in libro animalium {H. A. vi. 1-9) nee spectat ad nostrum propositum, quod est de perfectis avibus rapacibus qualiter docentur rapere aves non rapaces iam exclusas de ovibus et perfectas,' MS. B, p. 67. Cf. MS. M, fo. 3 V (ed. Schneider, p. 5) : ' Reliqua vero omnia que pretermittimus de natura avium in libro Aristotilis de animalibus requirantur.' 4 See the preface, supra, p. 344. 5 Yet Biehringer (Kaiser Friedrich 11, p. 244) can speak of the emperor as ' ein bedingungsloser Bewunderer des Aristoteles '. 6 ' In nostris regionibus, scilicet sexti climatis quinti quarti et tertii,' MS. B, p. 515. 7 Infra, p. 353. 8 ' In quadam insula que est inter Norvegiam et Gallandiam et vocatur theutonice Yslandia et latine interpretatur contrata seu regio glaciei,' MS. M, fo. 49 v , ed. Schneider, p. 75. Moamyn has ' Nascuntur in partibus frigidis ut in Dacia et Norodia ' (MS. Corpus 287, fo. 45*). 9 MS. M, fo. 60, ed. Schneider, p. 94. 10 MS. M, fo. 27, ed. Schneider, p. 42. 11 MS. M, fo. 75, ed. Schneider, p. 117. 12 MS. B, pp. 52, 440-3. 13 Ed. Schneider, pp. 2, 69 f.
