Michael Scot and the Augustalis Gold Coins

What is it about?

The article argues that the 13th-century scholar Michael Scot likely played a behind-the-scenes role in Emperor Frederick II’s famous Augustalis gold coins, mainly through his expertise in measurement, calculation, and practical alchemy (especially gold refining and metal testing). It reviews Scot’s wider scientific work (medicine, Fibonacci mathematics, meteorology, astronomy/music) and places him in the geological and political context of Sicily and North Africa, where Frederick sourced much of his gold. The author explains medieval gold-purification techniques (cupellation, cementation, mercury amalgamation) and suggests Scot’s knowledge and contacts in Toledo and the Islamic world made him a natural advisor on coin purity and standards. Overall, the paper proposes that Scot’s activities foreshadow a kind of early “entrepreneurial alchemy” linking mystical alchemy with state-driven metallurgy and minting, centuries before similar patterns appear with Newton at the British Mint.

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Photo by Evgeniy Smersh on Unsplash

Photo by Evgeniy Smersh on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This paper is part of sequence showcasing the outstanding contributions made by the 13th century 'wizard' Michael Scot in the transmission of culture and technology from the Islamic 'golden age' to medieval Europe.

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