The Renaissance of the 12th century saw a major search by European scholars for new learning, which led them to the areas of Europe that once been under Muslim rule and still had substantial Arabic-speaking populations, but that had recently been reconquered by Christians. This meant central Spain and Sicily, both of which had come under Christian rule in the eleventh century. The combination of a substantial numbers of Arabic-speaking scholars and Christian rulers made these areas intellectually attractive yet culturally and politically accessible to Latin scholars. 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[2]
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....
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 most significantly, an interest in the Qur'an and other Islamic religious texts.[3] In addition, some Arabic literature was also translated into Latin.[4]
Translators in Italy
Just before the burst of translations in the 12th century, Constantine the African, a Christian from Carthage who studied medicine in Egypt and ultimately became a monk at the monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy, translated medical works from Arabic. Constantine's many translations included Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi's medical encyclopedia The Complete Book of the Medical Art (as Liber pantegni),[5] the ancient medicine of Hippocrates and Galen as adapted by Arabic physicians,[6] and the Isagoge ad Tegni Galeni[7] by Hunayn ibn Ishaq (Johannitius) and his nephew Hubaysh ibn al-Hasan.[8] Other medical works he translated include Isaac Israeli ben Solomon's Liber febribus, Liber de dietis universalibus et particularibus and Liber de urinis; Ishaq ibn Imran's 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.[7]
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.[9]
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.[10] 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.[11] Accursius of Pistoja's translations included the works of Galen and Hunayn ibn Ishaq.[12] 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).[5] The Aphorismi by Masawaiyh (Mesue) was translated by an anonymous translator in late 11th or early 12th century Italy.[13]
James of Venice, who probably spent some years in Constantinople, translated Aristotle's Posterior Analytics from Greek into Latin in the mid-twelfth century,[14] 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,[15] 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 medicinis by a pseudo-Serapion[16]
Translators on the Spanish frontier
As early as the end of the tenth 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.[17] 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.[18] 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.[19]
One of the more important translation projects was sponsored by Peter the Venerable, the abbot of Cluny. In 1142 he called upon Robert of Ketton and Herman of Carinthia, Peter of Poitiers, and a Muslim known only as "Mohammed" to produce the first Latin translation of the Qur'an (the Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete).[20]
Translations were produced throughout Spain and Provence. Plato of Tivoli worked in Catalonia, Herman of Carinthia in Northern Spain and across the Pyrenees in Languedoc, Hugh of Santalla in Aragon, Robert of Ketton in Navarre and Robert of Chester in Segovia.[21] The most important center of translation was the great cathedral library of Toledo.
Plato of Tivoli's translations into Latin include al-Battani's astronomical and trigonometrical work De motu stellarum, Abraham bar Hiyya's Liber embadorum, Theodosius of Bithynia's Spherica, and Archimedes' Measurement of a Circle. Robert of Chester's translations into Latin included al-Khwarizmi's Algebra and astronomical tables (also containing trigonometric tables).[22] Abraham of Tortosa's translations include Ibn Sarabi's (Serapion Junior) De Simplicibus and Abulcasis' Al-Tasrif as Liber Servitoris.[12] In 1126, Muhammad al-Fazari's Great Sindhind (based on the Sanskrit works of Surya Siddhanta and Brahmagupta's Brahmasphutasiddhanta) was translated into Latin.[23]
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".[4]
The "Toledo School"
One of the sponsors of translations in Spain was Archbishop Raymond of Toledo, (1125–52), to whom John of Seville dedicated a translation in appreciation. Starting from this fragmentary evidence, nineteenth-century historians proposed that Raymond had established a formal translation school, but no specific evidence for such a school has emerged and its existence is now doubted. Many of the translators worked outside Toledo and those who did work in Toledo, worked after Raymond's episcopacy.[24]
Toledo, however, was a center of multilingual culture, with a large population of Arabic speaking Christians (Mozarabs) and had prior importance as a center of learning. This tradition of scholarship, and the books that embodied it, survived the conquest of the city by King Alfonso VI in 1085. A further factor was that Toledo's early bishops and clergy came from France, where Arabic was not widely known. Consequently the cathedral became a center of translations, which were on a scale and importance that "has no match in the history of western culture".[25]
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.[26]
The most productive of the Toledo translators was Gerard of Cremona,[27] who translated 87 books,[28] including Ptolemy's Almagest, many of the works of Aristotle, including his Posterior Analytics, Physics, On the Heavens and the World, On Generation and Corruption, and Meteorology, al-Khwarizmi's On Algebra and Almucabala, Archimedes' On the Measurement of the Circle, Aristotle, Euclid's Elements of Geometry, Jabir ibn Aflah's Elementa astronomica,[22] Al-Kindi's On Optics, al-Farghani's On Elements of Astronomy on the Celestial Motions, al-Farabi's On the Classification of the Sciences, the chemical and medical works of al-Razi (Rhazes),[5] the works of Thabit ibn Qurra and Hunayn ibn Ishaq,[29] and the works of al-Zarkali, Jabir ibn Aflah, the Banu Musa, Abu Kamil, Abu al-Qasim, and Ibn al-Haytham (including the Book of Optics).[30] The medical works he translated include Haly Abenrudian's Expositio ad Tegni Galeni; the Practica, Brevarium medicine by Yuhanna ibn Sarabiyun (Serapion); Alkindus' De Gradibus; Rhazes' Liber ad Almansorem, Liber divisionum, Introductio in medicinam, De egritudinibus iuncturarum, Antidotarium and Practica puerorum; Isaac Israeli ben Solomon's De elementis and De definitionibus;[13] Abulcasis' Al-Tasrif as Chirurgia; Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine as Liber Canonis; and the Liber de medicamentis simplicus by Ibn Wafid (Abenguefit).[15]