In a manuscript of the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris (Latin 18018, 13-14th century, folio. 210va-227rb) between two standard works of medieval science, the Questiones naturales of Adelard of Bath, composed before 1133, and the somewhat earlier Liber lapidum of Marbod, who died aged 88 in 1123, "Incipiunt questiones Alani." But this intervening text appears to be almost completely unknown. For its author the name of Alanus de Insulis (Alain de Lille) naturally suggests itself, although he lived considerably later than either Adelard or Marbod, from about 1128 to 1202. But while he has found a place in Sarton's Introduction to the History of Science, II (1931), 383-384, and has had ascribed to him De naturis quorundam animalium, which Fabricius long since identified with the second book of the Bestiary of Hugh of St. Victor, and even an alchemical treatise, these Questiones have not been attributed to him.

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