Michele Scotto

Profile

Michele Scotto is recalled by Dante as one of the most renowned astrologers of his time. According to the note on line 116 of Canto XX of the Inferno, he was of Scottish origin and lived at the court of Frederick II; he composed various works of philosophy and astrology and translated important Aristotelian and Averroist texts, so much so that his fame was such that even in a later age stories were told of him in Scotland. The single verse concerning him, "Michele Scotto fu, che veramente" (Inf. XX 116), explicitly places him in the series of modern figures, his contemporaries, whom the poet condemns together with the celebrated soothsayers of antiquity for their divinatory deceptions, as can be gathered from the context of the canto, which groups Michele Scotto with Guido Bonatti and Asdente under the charge of "magiche frode" (magical frauds).