I think Phoenix would be less inclined to poke at the history of magic or famous archmages and more inclined to learn the basics - schools of magic, how they interact, spells of note. He may not be the type that gains arcane spellcasting, but knowing what arcane spellcasters can do is a current huge hole in his knowledge base that makes it that much harder to put together deductions.

If that helps you narrow things down, then let's roll with that. Otherwise, generalized is fine.