Medieval Italy Texts In Translation
Mckenzie Witting
Jurists and Jurisprudence in Medieval Italy is an original collection of texts exemplifying medieval Italian jurisprudence, known as the ius commune. Translated for the first time into English, many of the texts exist only in early printed editions and manuscripts. Featuring commentaries by leading medieval civil law jurists, notably Azo Portius, Accursius, Albertus Gandinus, Bartolus of Sassoferrato, and Baldus de Ubaldis, this book covers a wide range of topics, including how to teach and study law, the production of legal texts, the ethical norms guiding practitioners, civil and criminal procedures, and family matters.
The translations, together with context-setting introductions, highlight fundamental legal concepts and practices and the milieu in which jurists operated. They offer entry points for exploring perennial subjects such as the professionalization of lawyers, the tangled relationship between law and morality, the role of gender in the socio-legal order, and the extent to which the ius commune can be considered an autonomous system of law.
As Refini demonstrated through images, textual analysis, and charts, vernacular translation involved a constant negotiation between the original text and the desires of active readers. Although translations of the Ethics remained aimed at an upper-class audience, Refini's talk pointed out not only the risk of cheapening great texts, but also the distant possibility of literature that all could enjoy.
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]
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),[13] the ancient medicine of Hippocrates and Galen as adapted by Arabic physicians,[14] and the Isagoge ad Tegni Galeni[15] by Hunayn ibn Ishaq (Johannitius) and his nephew Hubaysh ibn al-Hasan.[16] 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.[15]
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.
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]
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).[28]
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.[29] The most important center of translation was the great cathedral library of Toledo.
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 Pseudo-Platonic Book of the Cow, a 9th-century Arabic work on natural magic, was translated into Latin in the 12th century, probably in Spain.[34]
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.[37] 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.[38]
The most productive of the Toledo translators at that time was Gerard of Cremona,[39] who translated 87 books,[40] including Ptolemy's Almagest, many of the works of Aristotle, including his Posterior Analytics, Physics, On the Heavens, On Generation and Corruption, and Meteorology, al-Khwarizmi's On Algebra and Almucabala, Archimedes' On the Measurement of the Circle, Euclid's Elements of Geometry, Jabir ibn Aflah's Elementa Astronomica,[30] 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),[13] the works of Thabit ibn Qurra and Hunayn ibn Ishaq,[41] and the works of al-Zarqali, Jabir ibn Aflah, the Banu Musa, Abu Kamil, Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, and Ibn al-Haytham (Not including the Book of Optics, because the catalog of the works of Gerard of Cremona does not list that title; however the Risner compilation of Opticae Thesaurus Septem Libri also includes a work by Witelo and also de Crepusculis, which Risner incorrectly attributed to Alhazen, and which was translated by Gerard of Cremona).[42] The medical works he translated include Haly Abenrudian's Expositio ad Tegni Galeni; 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;[21] Abulcasis' Al-Tasrif as Chirurgia; Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine as Liber Canonis; and Liber de Medicamentis Simplicus by Abenguefit.[23] At the close of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th centuries, Mark of Toledo translated the Qur'an (once again) and various medical works.[43] He also translated Hunayn ibn Ishaq's medical work Liber Isagogarum.[23]
64591212e2