Since the 9th century, Aristotle's Historia animalium, an orderly description of various creatures, had been available in an Arabic translation, which Michael Scotus translated into Latin in 1220. The decoration of the initials in this manuscript, which Johannes Heynlin purchased in Paris and bequeathed to the Carthusian monastery of Basel, is rich in drolleries. Throughout the volume, there are annotations by various hands. (flr)

The 13th-century manuscript is composed of three parts. The first part contains Aristotelian and pseudo-Aristotelian works in Latin translation. The second part contains 'De mineralibus' and 'De natura loci' by Albertus Magnus. The third part consists of a commentary by Michael Scotus on Johannes de Sacrobosco's work about the heavenly spheres, an anonymous commentary on the Arithmetic of Boethius, and the commentary by Averroës on Aristotle's 'De longitudine et brevitate vitae'. This manuscript is among the finest examples of Italian secular book production from the last third of the 13th century, and it is one of the earlier illuminated Aristotelian manuscripts. (pil)

A painstakingly annoted copy of the work De natura animalium tractatus XIX by Aristotle, in the Latin version by the scholar Michael Scotus († ca. 1235), written during the 13th century, with an opening "I" initial, partly decorated in gold, showing a man sitting before a book. In 1453 this manuscript was owned by one Johannes Kalf from Wangen (in Allgäu); bound in a Kopert (limp vellum) binding. (smu)