Latin translations of the 12th century

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Plato of Tivoli in 1136, and again by John of Seville in 1153.[1] Here is the Nuremberg edition of John of Seville
's translation, 1546.

Latin translations of the 12th century were spurred by a major search by European scholars for new learning unavailable in western Europe

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

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

Qur'an and other Islamic religious texts.[11] In addition, some Arabic literature was also translated into Latin.[12]

Translators in Italy

Just before the burst of translations in the 12th century,

psychological work al-Maqala fi al-Malikhukiya as De Melancolia; and Ibn al-Jazzar's De Gradibus, Viaticum, Liber de Stomacho, De Elephantiasi, De Coitu and De Oblivione.[15]

Greek East, which allowed for exchange of ideas and manuscripts.[17]

, 2nd half of the 15th century.

A copy of

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

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

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]

One of the more important translation projects was sponsored by

Muslim known only as "Mohammed" to produce the first Latin translation of the Qur'an (the Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete).[28]

Translations were produced throughout Spain and

Hugh of Santalla in Aragon, Robert of Ketton in Navarre and Robert of Chester in Segovia.[29] The most important center of translation was the great cathedral library of Toledo
.

Plato of Tivoli's translations into Latin include

Abulcasis' Al-Tasrif as Liber Servitoris.[31] In 1126, Muhammad al-Fazari's Great Sindhind (based on the Sanskrit works of Surya Siddhanta and Brahmagupta's Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta) was translated into Latin.[32]

In addition to philosophical and scientific literature, the Jewish writer Petrus Alphonsi translated a collection of 33 tales from Arabic literature into Latin. Some of the tales he drew on were from the Panchatantra and Arabian Nights, such as the story cycle of "Sinbad the Sailor".[33]

The Toledo School of Translators

Alfonso X
(the Wise)

Toledo, with a large population of Arabic-speaking Christians (

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.

The most productive of the Toledo translators at that time was

medical works.[42] He also translated Hunayn ibn Ishaq's medical work Liber Isagogarum.[23]

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

Abu al-Salt (Albuzali),[23] and Costa ben Luca's De Physicis Ligaturis.[21]

In 13th century Portugal,

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]

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]

al-Razi (Rhazes). Andreas Alphagus Bellnensis' translations include the works of Avicenna, Averroes, Serapion, al-Qifti, and Albe'thar.[49]

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

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.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Suter & Samsó 1960–2007.
  2. ^ See, e.g., Sarton 1952, pp. 31–32.
  3. ^ Burnett 2001, p. 255.
  4. ^ Laughlin 1995, pp. 128–129.
  5. ^ Laughlin 1995, p. 139.
  6. ^ Laughlin 1995, p. 141.
  7. ^ Laughlin 1995, pp. 143–146.
  8. ^ Laughlin 1995, pp. 147–148.
  9. ^ Watt 1972, pp. 59–60; Lindberg 1978, pp. 58–59.
  10. ^ Lindberg 1978, pp. 58–59.
  11. ^ D'Alverny 1982, pp. 426–433.
  12. ^ Irwin 2003, p. 93.
  13. ^
    Santa Fe Community College
    .
  14. ^ D'Alverny 1982, pp. 422–426.
  15. ^ a b Jacquart 1996, p. 981.
  16. ^ Campbell 1926, pp. 4–5.
  17. ^ Haskins 1924, pp. 155–157.
  18. ^ D'Alverny 1982, pp. 433–434.
  19. ^ D'Alverny 1982, p. 435.
  20. ^ Campbell 1926, p. 3.
  21. ^ a b c Jacquart 1996, p. 982.
  22. ^ Reynolds & Wilson 1968, p. 106.
  23. ^ a b c d e f Jacquart 1996, p. 983.
  24. ^ a b c Jacquart 1996, p. 984.
  25. ^ Haskins 1924, pp. 8–10.
  26. ^ D'Alverny 1982, pp. 429–430, 451–452.
  27. ^ Haskins 1927, p. 288.
  28. ^ D'Alverny 1982, p. 429.
  29. ^ D'Alverny 1982, pp. 444–448.
  30. ^ a b c Katz 1998, p. 291.
  31. ^ Campbell 1926, p. 3.
  32. ^ Joseph 2000, p. 306.
  33. ^ Irwin 2003, p. 93.
  34. ^ D'Alverny 1982, pp. 444–446, 451.
  35. ^ Lindberg 1978, p. 64.
  36. ^ Taton 1963, p. 481.
  37. ^ Burnett 2001, pp. 249–51, 270.
  38. ^ Haskins 1927, p. 287: "More of Arabic science passed into Western Europe at the hands of Gerard of Cremona than in any other way."
  39. ^ For a list of Gerard of Cremona's translations see Burnett 2001, pp. 275–281.
  40. ^ Campbell 1926, p. 6.
  41. ^ 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.
  42. ^ D'Alverny 1982, pp. 429, 455.
  43. ^ Larramendi, Cañada & Parrilla 2000, p. 109.
  44. ^ Wightman 1953, p. 332.
  45. ^ Kann 1993.
  46. ^ Campbell 1926, p. 5.
  47. ^ Burnett 1999, p. xi.
  48. ^ D'Alverny 1982, pp. 440–443.
  49. ^ Campbell 1926, p. 4.
  50. ^ Dapsens 2016.
  51. ^ 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.
  52. ^ Lindberg 1978, p. 69.

References

External links