Latin translations of the 12th century were spurred by a major search by European scholars for new learning unavailable in western Europe at the time; their search led them to areas of southern Europe, particularly in central Spain and Sicily, which recently had come under Christian rule following their reconquest in the late 11th century. These areas had been under Muslim rule for a considerable time, and still had substantial Arabic-speaking populations to support their search. The combination of this accumulated knowledge and the substantial numbers of Arabic-speaking scholars there made these areas intellectually attractive, as well as culturally and politically accessible to Latin scholars.[2] A typical story is that of Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114–87), who is said to have made his way to Toledo, well after its reconquest by Christians in 1085, because he:
arrived at a knowledge of each part of [philosophy] according to the study of the Latins, nevertheless, because of his love for the Almagest, which he did not find at all amongst the Latins, he made his way to Toledo, where seeing an abundance of books in Arabic on every subject, and pitying the poverty he had experienced among the Latins concerning these subjects, out of his desire to translate he thoroughly learnt the Arabic language.[3]
Many Christian theologians were highly suspicious of ancient philosophies and especially of the attempts to synthesize them with Christian doctrines. St. Jerome, for example, was hostile to Aristotle, and St. Augustine had little interest in exploring philosophy, only applying logic to theology.[4] For centuries, ancient Greek ideas in Western Europe were all but non-existent. Only a few monasteries had Greek works, and even fewer of them copied these works.[5]
There was a brief period of revival, when the Anglo-Saxon monk Alcuin and others reintroduced some Greek ideas during the Carolingian Renaissance.[6] After Charlemagne's death, however, intellectual life again fell into decline. Excepting a few persons promoting Boethius, such as Gerbert of Aurillac, philosophical thought was developed little in Europe for about two centuries.[7] By the 12th century, however, scholastic thought was beginning to develop, leading to the rise of universities throughout Europe. These universities gathered what little Greek thought had been preserved over the centuries, including Boethius' commentaries on Aristotle. They also served as places of discussion for new ideas coming from new translations from Arabic throughout Europe.[8]
By the 12th century, Toledo, in Spain, had fallen from Arab hands in 1085, Sicily in 1091, and Jerusalem in 1099.[9] The small population of the Crusader Kingdoms contributed very little to the translation efforts, though Sicily, still largely Greek-speaking, was more productive. Sicilians, however, were less influenced by Arabic than the other regions and instead are noted more for their translations directly from Greek to Latin. Spain, on the other hand, was an ideal place for translation from Arabic to Latin because of a combination of rich Latin and Arab cultures living side by side.[10]
Unlike the interest in the literature and history of classical antiquity during the Renaissance, 12th century translators sought new scientific, philosophical and, to a lesser extent, religious texts. The latter concern was reflected in a renewed interest in translations of the Greek Church Fathers into Latin, a concern with translating Jewish teachings from Hebrew, and an interest in the Qur'an and other Islamic religious texts.[11] In addition, some Arabic literature was also translated into Latin.[12]
Sicily had been part of the Byzantine Empire until 878, was under Muslim control from 878–1060, and came under Norman control between 1060 and 1090. As a consequence the Norman Kingdom of Sicily maintained a trilingual bureaucracy, which made it an ideal place for translations. Sicily also maintained relations with the Greek East, which allowed for exchange of ideas and manuscripts.[17]
A copy of Ptolemy's Almagest was brought back to Sicily by Henry Aristippus, as a gift from the Emperor to King William I. Aristippus, himself, translated Plato's Meno and Phaedo into Latin, but it was left to an anonymous student at Salerno to travel to Sicily and translate the Almagest, as well as several works by Euclid, from Greek to Latin.[18] Although the Sicilians generally translated directly from the Greek, when Greek texts were not available, they would translate from Arabic. Admiral Eugene of Sicily translated Ptolemy's Optics into Latin, drawing on his knowledge of all three languages in the task.[19] Accursius of Pistoja's translations included the works of Galen and Hunayn ibn Ishaq.[20] Gerard de Sabloneta translated Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine and al-Razi's Almansor. Fibonacci presented the first complete European account of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system from Arabic sources in his Liber Abaci (1202).[13] The Aphorismi by Masawaiyh (Mesue) was translated by an anonymous translator in late 11th or early 12th century Italy.[21]
James of Venice, who probably spent some years in Constantinople, translated Aristotle's Posterior Analytics from Greek into Latin in the mid-12th century,[22] thus making the complete Aristotelian logical corpus, the Organon, available in Latin for the first time.
In 13th century Padua, Bonacosa translated Averroes' medical work Kitab al-Kulliyyat as Colliget,[23] and John of Capua translated the Kitab al-Taysir by Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) as Theisir. In 13th century Sicily, Faraj ben Salem translated Rhazes' al-Hawi as Continens as well as Ibn Butlan's Tacuinum Sanitatis. Also in 13th century Italy, Simon of Genoa and Abraham Tortuensis translated Abulcasis' Al-Tasrif as Liber Servitoris, Alcoati's Congregatio sive Liber de Oculis, and the Liber de Simplicibus Medicamentis by a pseudo-Serapion[24]
Translators on the Spanish frontier
As early as the end of the 10th century, European scholars travelled to Spain to study. Most notable among these was Gerbert of Aurillac (later Pope Sylvester II) who studied mathematics in the region of the Spanish March around Barcelona. Translations, however, did not begin in Spain until after 1085 when Toledo was reconquered by Christians.[25] The early translators in Spain focused heavily on scientific works, especially mathematics and astronomy, with a second area of interest including the Qur'an and other Islamic texts.[26] Spanish collections included many scholarly works written in Arabic, so translators worked almost exclusively from Arabic, rather than Greek texts, often in cooperation with a local speaker of Arabic.[27]
Toledo, with a large population of Arabic-speaking Christians (Mozarabs) had been an important center of learning since as early as the end of the 10th century, when European scholars traveled to Spain to study subjects that were not readily available in the rest of Europe. Among the early translators at Toledo were an Avendauth (who some have identified with Abraham ibn Daud), who translated Avicenna's encyclopedia, the Kitāb al-Shifa (The Book of Healing), in cooperation with Domingo Gundisalvo, Archdeacon of Cuéllar.[34] The translating efforts at Toledo are often overemphasized into a “school of translation,” however the representation of Toledo translating activity creates a false sense that a formal school arose around the Archbishop Raymond. Only one translation, by John of Seville, can be definitively dedicated to the archbishop. It is more accurate to consider Toledo as a geographically bilingual environment where local interests were favorable to translation efforts, making it a practical and appealing location for translators to work. As a result, many translators became active in the area and Toledo became the focus of translating activity.[35]
However translating efforts were not properly organized until Toledo was reconquered by the Christian forces in 1085. Raymond of Toledo started the first translation efforts at the library of the Cathedral of Toledo, where he led a team of translators that included Mozarabic Toledans, Jewish scholars, Madrasa teachers and monks from the Order of Cluny. They worked in the translation of many works from Arabic into Castilian, from Castilian into Latin, or directly from Arabic into Latin or Greek, and also made available important texts from Arabic and Hebrew philosophers who the Archbishop deemed important for an understanding of Aristotle.[36] As a result of their activities, the cathedral became a translations center known as the Escuela de Traductores de Toledo (Toledo School of Translators), which was on a scale and importance not matched in the history of western culture.[37]
Al-Razi's Recueil des traités de médecine translated by Gerard of Cremona, second half of the 13th century.Depiction of the Persian physician al-Razi, in Gerard of Cremona's "Recueil des traités de medecine" 1250–1260.
Under King Alfonso X of Castile, Toledo rose even higher in importance as a translation center. By insisting that the translated output was "llanos de entender" ("easy to understand"),[43] they reached a much wider audience both within Spain and in other European countries, as many scholars from places like Italy, Germany, England or the Netherlands, who had moved to Toledo in order to translate medical, religious, classical and philosophical texts, brought back to their countries the acquired knowledge. Others were selected and hired with very high salaries by the King himself from many places in Spain, like Seville or Córdoba and foreign places like Gascony or Paris.
Michael Scot (c. 1175–1232)[44] translated the works of (Alpetragius) al-Betrugi' On the Motions of the Heavens in 1217,[13] and Averroes' influential commentaries on the scientific works of Aristotle.[45]
Later translators
David the Jew (c. 1228–1245) translated the works of al-Razi (Rhazes) into Latin. Arnaldus de Villa Nova's (1235–1313) translations include the works of Galen and Avicenna[46] (Including his Maqala fi Ahkam al-Adwiya al-Qalbiya as De Viribus Cordis), the De Medicinis Simplicibus by Abu al-Salt (Albuzali),[23] and Costa ben Luca's De Physicis Ligaturis.[21]
In 13th century Portugal, Giles of Santarém translated Rhazes' De Secretis Medicine, Aphorismi Rasis and Mesue's De Secretis Medicine. In Murcia, Rufin of Alexandria translated the Liber questionum medicinalium discentium in medicina by Hunayn ibn Ishaq (Hunen), and Dominicus Marrochinus translated the Epistola de cognitione infirmatum oculorum by Ali Ibn Isa (Jesu Haly).[23] In 14th century Lerida, John Jacobi translated Alcoati's medical work Libre de la figura del uyl into Catalan and then Latin.[24]
Willem van Moerbeke, known in the English speaking world as William of Moerbeke (c. 1215–1286) was a prolific medieval translator of philosophical, medical, and scientific texts from Greek into Latin. At the request of Aquinas, so it is assumed—the source document is not clear—he undertook a complete translation of the works of Aristotle or, for some portions, a revision of existing translations. He was the first translator of the Politics (c. 1260) from Greek into Latin. The reason for the request was that the many copies of Aristotle in Latin then in circulation had originated in Spain (see Gerard of Cremona). These earlier translations were assumed to have been influenced by the rationalist Averroes, who was suspected of being a source of philosophical and theological errors found in the earlier translations of Aristotle. Moerbeke's translations have had a long history; they were already standard classics by the 14th century, when Henricus Hervodius put his finger on their enduring value: they were literal (de verbo in verbo), faithful to the spirit of Aristotle and without elegance. For several of William's translations, the Greek texts have since disappeared, without him the works would be lost. William also translated mathematical treatises by Hero of Alexandria and Archimedes. Especially important was his translation of the Elements of Theology of Proclus (made in 1268), because the Elements of Theology is one of the fundamental sources of the revived Neo-Platonic philosophical currents of the 13th century. The Vatican collection holds William's own copy of the translation he made of the greatest Hellenistic mathematician, Archimedes, with commentaries of Eutocius, which was made in 1269 at the papal court in Viterbo. William consulted two of the best Greek manuscripts of Archimedes, both of which have since disappeared.
Other European translators
Adelard of Bath's (fl. 1116–1142) translations into Latin included al-Khwarizmi's astronomical and trigonometrical work Astronomical Tables and his arithmetical work Liber Isagogarum Alchorismi, the Introduction to Astrology of Abu Ma'shar, as well as Euclid's Elements.[47] Adelard associated with other scholars in Western England such as Peter Alfonsi and Walcher of Malvern who translated and developed the astronomical concepts brought from Spain.[48]Abu Kamil's Algebra was also translated into Latin during this period, but the translator of the work is unknown.[30]
In 13th century Montpellier, Profatius and Bernardus Honofredi translated the Kitab al-Aghdhiya by Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) as De regimine sanitatis; and Armengaud translated the al-Urjuza fi al-Tibb, a work combining the medical writings of Avicenna and Averroes, as Cantica cum commento.[24]
Other texts translated during this period include a number of alchemical works, the first of which appears to have been the Liber de compositione alchemiae ("Book on the Composition of Alchemy"), translated by Robert of Chester in 1144 and containing a dialogue between Morienus and Khālid ibn Yazīd.[50] Also notable are translations from alchemical works attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber), such as the Book of the Seventy (Arabic: Kitāb al-Sabʿīn, translated by Gerard of Cremona, before 1187, as Liber de Septuaginta), The Great Book of Mercy (Arabic: Kitāb al-Raḥma al-Kabīr, anonymously translated as Liber Misericordiae), and The Book of the Kingship (Arabic: Kitāb al-Mulk, translated as Liber Regni).[51] Another work translated during this period was De Proprietatibus Elementorum, an Arabic work on geology written by a pseudo-Aristotle.[13] A pseudo-Mesue's De consolatione medicanarum simplicum, Antidotarium, was also translated into Latin by an anonymous translator.[23]
Vernacular languages
In the 12th century in southern France and Italy, many Arabic scientific texts were translated into Hebrew. France and Italy had large Jewish communities where there was little knowledge of Arabic, requiring translations to provide access to Arabic science. The translation of Arabic texts into Hebrew was used by translators, such as Profatius Judaeus, as an intermediate step between translation from Arabic into Latin. This practice was most widely used from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries.[52]
List of translations
This list is of translations after c. 1100 of works written originally in Greek.
↑ Smith 2001, p.clxviii has found that there were at least two translators from Ibn al-Haytam's Kitab al-Manazir (in Arabic) to Alhacen's De Aspectibus (in Latin), one of them a master as skilled as Gerard of Cremona, and the other(s) less skilled.
↑ On the Latin translations of Arabic works attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan, see Moureau 2020, pp.111–112. As noted by Moureau, other Latin works attributed to Geber (Summa perfectionis, De inventione veritatis, De investigatione perfectionis, Liber fornacum, Testamentum Geberi, and Alchemia Geberi) are pseudepigraphic.
Gerard of Cremona was an Italian translator of scientific books from Arabic into Latin. He worked in Toledo, Kingdom of Castile and obtained the Arabic books in the libraries at Toledo. Some of the books had been originally written in Greek and, although well known in Byzantine Constantinople and Greece at the time, were unavailable in Greek or Latin in Western Europe. Gerard of Cremona is the most important translator among the Toledo School of Translators who invigorated Western medieval Europe in the twelfth century by transmitting the Arabs' and ancient Greeks' knowledge in astronomy, medicine and other sciences, by making the knowledge available in Latin. One of Gerard's most famous translations is of Ptolemy's Almagest from Arabic texts found in Toledo.
Aristotelianism is a philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle, usually characterized by deductive logic and an analytic inductive method in the study of natural philosophy and metaphysics. It covers the treatment of the social sciences under a system of natural law. It answers why-questions by a scheme of four causes, including purpose or teleology, and emphasizes virtue ethics. Aristotle and his school wrote tractates on physics, biology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics, and government. Any school of thought that takes one of Aristotle's distinctive positions as its starting point can be considered "Aristotelian" in the widest sense. This means that different Aristotelian theories may not have much in common as far as their actual content is concerned besides their shared reference to Aristotle.
The House of Wisdom, also known as the Grand Library of Baghdad, was a major Abbasid public academy and intellectual center in Baghdad and one of the world's largest public libraries during the Islamic Golden Age. The House of Wisdom was founded either as a library for the collections of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the late 8th century or was a private collection created by al-Mansur to house rare books and collections of poetry in Arabic. During the reign of the Caliph al-Ma'mun, it was turned into a public academy and a library.
Dominicus Gundissalinus, also known as Domingo Gundisalvi or Gundisalvo, was a philosopher and translator of Arabic to Medieval Latin active in Toledo. Among his translations, Gundissalinus worked on Avicenna's Liber de philosophia prima and De anima, Ibn Gabirol's Fons vitae, and al-Ghazali's Summa theoricae philosophiae, in collaboration with the Jewish philosopher Abraham Ibn Daud and Johannes Hispanus. As a philosopher, Gundissalinus crucially contributed to the Latin assimilation of Arabic philosophy, being the first Latin thinker in receiving and developing doctrines, such as Avicenna's modal ontology or Ibn Gabirol's universal hylomorphism, that would soon be integrated into the thirteenth-century philosophical debate.
Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-Ibadi (Arabic: أبو زيد حنين بن إسحاق العبادي; ʾAbū Zayd Ḥunayn ibn ʾIsḥāq al-ʿIbādī was an influential Arab Nestorian Christian translator, scholar, physician, and scientist. During the apex of the Islamic Abbasid era, he worked with a group of translators, among whom were Abū 'Uthmān al-Dimashqi, Ibn Mūsā al-Nawbakhti, and Thābit ibn Qurra, to translate books of philosophy and classical Greek and Persian texts into Arabic and Syriac.
Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, also known as Isaac Israeli the Elder and Isaac Judaeus, was one of the foremost Jewish physicians and philosophers living in the Arab world of his time. He is regarded as the father of medieval Jewish Neoplatonism. His works, all written in Arabic and subsequently translated into Hebrew, Latin and Spanish, entered the medical curriculum of the early thirteenth-century universities in Medieval Europe and remained popular throughout the Middle Ages.
John of Seville was one of the main translators from Arabic into Castilian in partnership with Dominicus Gundissalinus during the early days of the Toledo School of Translators. John of Seville translated a litany of Arabic astrological works in addition to being credited with the production of several original works in Latin.
The three brothers Abū Jaʿfar, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir ; Abū al‐Qāsim, Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir and Al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir, were Persian scholars who lived and worked in Baghdad. They are collectively known as the Banū Mūsā.
The Toledo School of Translators is the group of scholars who worked together in the city of Toledo during the 12th and 13th centuries, to translate many of the Islamic philosophy and scientific works from Classical Arabic into Medieval Latin.
The Kitāb al-Ḥayawān is an Arabic translation of treatises of Aristotle's:
Qusta ibn Luqa, also known as Costa ben Luca or Constabulus (820–912) was a Syrian Melkite Christian physician, philosopher, astronomer, mathematician and translator. He was born in Baalbek. Travelling to parts of the Byzantine Empire, he brought back Greek texts and translated them into Arabic.
The transmission of the Greek Classics to Latin Western Europe during the Middle Ages was a key factor in the development of intellectual life in Western Europe. Interest in Greek texts and their availability was scarce in the Latin West during the Early Middle Ages, but as traffic to the East increased, so did Western scholarship.
During the High Middle Ages, the Islamic world was at its cultural peak, supplying information and ideas to Europe, via Al-Andalus, Sicily and the Crusader kingdoms in the Levant. These included Latin translations of the Greek Classics and of Arabic texts in astronomy, mathematics, science, and medicine. Translation of Arabic philosophical texts into Latin "led to the transformation of almost all philosophical disciplines in the medieval Latin world", with a particularly strong influence of Muslim philosophers being felt in natural philosophy, psychology and metaphysics. Other contributions included technological and scientific innovations via the Silk Road, including Chinese inventions such as paper, compass and gunpowder.
The Graeco-Arabic translation movement was a large, well-funded, and sustained effort responsible for translating a significant volume of secular Greek texts into Arabic. The translation movement took place in Baghdad from the mid-eighth century to the late tenth century.
Abū Bishr Mattā ibn Yūnus al-Qunnāʾī was an Arab Christian philosopher who played an important role in the transmission of the works of Aristotle to the Islamic world. He is famous for founding the Baghdad school of Aristotelian philosophers.
Yusuf al-Khuri, also known as Yusuf al-Khuri al-Qass, was a Christian priest, physician, mathematician, and translator of the Abbasid era.
The Elements of Theology is a work on Neoplatonic philosophy written by Proclus. Conceived of as a systematic summary of Neoplatonic metaphysics, it has often served as a general introduction to this subject.
Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭayyib, known by the nisbaal-ʿIrāqī and in medieval Latin as Abulpharagius Abdalla Benattibus, was a prolific writer, priest and polymath of the Church of the East. He practised medicine in Baghdad and wrote in Arabic about medicine, canon law, theology and philosophy. His biblical exegesis remains the most influential written in Arabic and he was an important commentator on Galen and Aristotle. He also produced translations from Syriac into Arabic.
Job of Edessa, called the Spotted, was a Christian natural philosopher and physician active in Baghdad and Khurāsān under the Abbasid Caliphate. He played an important role in transmitting Greek science to the Islamic world through his translations into Syriac.
The Kitāb al-wāḍiḥ bi-l-ḥaqq, known in Latin as the Liber denudationis, is a Copto-Arabic apologetic treatise against Islam. It was written by a Muslim convert to Christianity, Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ, around 1010 in Fāṭimid Egypt. Its purpose is to provide a refutation of Islam on the basis of the Qurʾān and the ḥadīth (tradition). It was translated into Latin in the 13th century, probably in Toledo. It had much greater influence in translation than in its original language.
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