The Wizard of the North

The Wizard of the North

Alex Kraaijeveld

The oldest Scottish record of a distilled spirit is an entry in the 1494 Exchequer Rolls, relating to a friar John Cor and eight bolls of malt, to make aquavitae. Virtually no whisky book is published without this quote! The earliest solid European records of a distilled alcoholic spirit come from the famous medical school at

Salerno in southern Italy, and from the university of Toledo in Spain; in both cases the records date from about halfway the 12^th century.

Why did it take almost 350 years for the knowledge of distilling alcohol to reach Scotland? Or did it? There are some bits of evidence to suggest that the knowledge of distilling alcohol may have existed on Scottish soil long before the 1494 entry. So let's travel back in time to the late 12^th / early 13^th century and put the few pieces together.

A Scotsman seen by many as one of the leading scientists of the 13^th century is Michael Scot. He was born in the 1170s, possibly in the Borders, possibly in Fife. He is thought to have been educated in Oxford and Paris, and definitely was in Toledo in March 1217. His presence in Toledo in 1217, incidentally, is the first solid piece of knowledge about him. He went to Bologna in 1220, may have taught at Salerno, and then moved on to Palermo, where he entered the service of Emperor Frederick II as the court astrologer. Scot had a keen interest in medicine, astrology, and alchemy, highly regarded branches of science in his days. Also, he could read Arabic and translated several Arab manuscripts.

Over the centuries, many legends arose about Scots magical powers, giving him the name 'Wizard of the North'. Given his presence at the very places where the art of distilling is thought to have been discovered in Europe, and at the right time, it would have been surprising if he had not known about distilled alcohol. Surviving copies of manuscripts attributed to him indeed refer to distillation and of 'aqua ardens', the earliest name for distilled alcohol. These manuscripts do not actually provide rock-solid proof that he knew of distilled alcohol, as they are transcribed copies dating from several centuries after his death. The references to distillation and aqua ardens could have been inserted by later scribes. However, given his interest in alchemy and his knowledge of Arab, it is almost inconceivable that he could have been at Toledo, and possibly Salerno, in the early 13^th century and not learn about this 'distilled water that could burn'.

The last years of Michael Scot's life are as shrouded in obscurity as his youth; he is usually thought to have returned to the Borders and to have died there in the 1230s. Michael Scot may very well have been the first Scotsman in history to have knowledge of distilled alcohol, but did he bring this knowledge back to Scotland? If indeed he came to Scotland shortly before his death, knowledge of distilled alcoholic spirits would have existed in Scotland more than 250 years before its first solid record in 1494. Did Scot pass on his knowledge? Did he take it with him to his grave?

We may never get the answers to these questions, although recently a special Research Trust, dedicated to researching the life and works of Michael Scot, was established. I will certainly try to get in touch with the Trust. Maybe, just maybe, hard evidence will be uncovered that the knowledge of distilling alcoholic spirit existed on Scottish soil in the early 13^th century, if only inside the skull of one man .....

© 2002 Alex Kraaijeveld

In case anyone wants to follow up on Michael Scot and/or dig more into the early history of alcohol distillation in Europe, these are the main sources I used for this article:

Arntz H, 1975. Weinbrenner. Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart.

Comrie JD, 1932. History of Scottish Medicine. Volume I. Baillière, Tindall & Cox, London.

Forbes RJ, 1948/1970. A short history of the art of distillation. EJ Brill, Leiden.

Harper WT, 1999. Origins and Rise of the British Distillery. The Edwin Mellen Press, Ontario.

Harrison Thomson S, 1938. The Texts of Michael Scot's Ars Alchemie. Osiris V: 523-559.

Lu GD, Needham J & Needham D, 1972. The coming of ardent water. Ambix 19: 69-112.

Small J, 1875. Sketches of early Scottish alchemists. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland XI: 179-197.

Thorndike L, 1965. Michael Scot. Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd., London.