Attempt
at a chronology of Hispanic translation history
TWELFTH CENTURY
Our thanks to Dr. Bruno Sandkühler
for corrections to this page.
1106 Petrus Alfunsis (Alfonsi), in Huesca,
is converted from Judaism to Christianity at the age of 44.
1108 Petrus Alphunsis writes Dialogi contra Judaeos.
1108 Beginnings of the Pisan quarter in Antioch.
1110 Petrus Alphunsis visits England, where he is probably
physician to Henri I Beauclerc.
1112 Petrus Chrysolanus (archbishop of Milan), in Constantinople,
disputes before Emperor Alexis.
1114 Johannes Afflacius ('the Saracen') and Rusticus
(physician), in Pisa, translate Ali ben Abbas's De chirurgia.
1114-15 'iohannes quidam agarenus (Saracenus?) quondam'
translates part of Ali ibn Abbas's Practica.
c.1115 Adelardus de Bada (of Bath) writes Liber ysagogarum
Alchorismi.
1116 Petrus Alphunsis writes Sentencia de dracone.
1118 Christians take Zaragoza.
1118 Abélard seduces Héloise.
1119 The university of Bologna is founded.
1119-51 Michael (probably French) is bishop of Tarazona,
which has just been taken from the Arabs. He seeks Arabic texts on
astrology and divination and sponsors their translation into Latin
by Hugo Sanctillanus.
1120 Walcher, prior of Malvern, translates into Latin
a work on astronomy by Petrus Alphunsis.
1120-1130 Adelardus de Bada translates Euclid, Abu Ma'shar
and al-Khwarezmi. (Other sources give 1116 as the date for his translation
of the Elements.)
1125-1152 Raymond de la Sauvetât is archbishop
of Toledo.
1126 Adelardus de Bada completes Ezich Elkauresmi per
Athelardum bathoniensem ex arabico sumptus, a version of al-Khwarezmi's
astronomical tables, translated from the Spanish Arabic astronomer
Maslana (based on the meridian of Cordoba). The translation is later
revised by Robertus Keteninsis.
1127 Stephanus Antiochensus (from Pisa), in Antioch,
translates Ali ibn Abbus's Liber regalis, earlier translated by Constantinus
Africanus. Stephanus says the earlier version had been 'corrupted
by the shrewd fraud of the translator'.
1128 Jacobus Clericus de Venetia (Jacobus Veneticus
Grecus) translates Aristotle's Physica, De anima, Metaphysica and
the Logica Nova into Latin. (all in one year?)
1130 Adelardus de Bada is in England after travels in
Magna Graecia and southern Italy.
1130 William of Conches, at Chartres, uses Constantinus
Africanus's Pantegni.
1133-42 Johannes Hispanensis (of Seville) translates
pseudo-Aristotle (Secreta secretorum), Avicenna, al-Battani, Qusta
ibn Luqa, al-Farabi, al-Fargani, Avicebron, al-Khwarezmi, al-Kindi,
Messahala, Aben Ragel, Thabit ben Kurra.
1133 Johannes Hispanensis translates Abu Ma'shar's Introductorium
in astronomium.
1134 Plato Tiburtinus, in Barcelona, translates Hali's
De electionibus.
1135, 11 March: Johannes Hispanensis, in Limia, translates
a liber in scientia astrorum by al-Fargani (Ahmed b. Muh b. Ketîr
el-Fargânî).
1135 Maimonedes is born in Cordoba.
1135 First manuscript in Chartres containing Arabic
words.
1135 John of Salisbury arrives in Paris.
1136 Plato Tiburtinus, in Barcelona, translates Almanzor's
Aphorisms and Albohali's Nativities (also translated by Johannes Hispanensis
in 1153) .
1136 Johannes Hispanensis translates pseudo-Ptolemy's
Centiloquium.
1136 Disputatio in Constantinople between Anselm (archbishop
of Ravenna) and Nicetas (archbishop of Nicomedia) before Johannes
Comnenus. Present are James a Venetian ('Jacobus Veneticus'), Burgundio
Pisanus (of Pisa), and Moses, an Italian from Bergamo, 'and he was
chosen by all to be a faithful interpreter for both sides'.
1137 Union of the kingdoms of Aragon and Catalonia.
1137 Beginnings of the Montpellier school of medicine.
1138 Plato Tiburtinus, in Barcelona, translates Ptolemy's
Quadripartitum.
1138 Hermannus Dalmata (Sclavus, of Carinthia), near
Logroño, translates De revolutionibus by the Jewish astrologer
Saul ben Bischr. He has earlier studied in Chartres or Paris.
1140 Almohades rise against the Almoravides dynasty
and rule over the Maghreb and what is left of Islamic Spain.
1140 Hermannus Dalmata, near Logroño, translates
Abu Ma'shar's Introductorium in Astronomium. The preface is addressed
to Robertus Ketenensis.
1140 Abraham ibn Ezra (1092-1162?), from Spain, writes
on astrology and travels to Rome, Salerno, Lucca, Pisa, Mantua, Verona,
Béziers, Narbonne, Bordeaux, Angers, Dreux, London and Winchester.
1140/41 Raymond of Marseille writes a liber cursuum
planetarum, adapting the Toledan tables to the meridian of Marseille.
1142 Petrus Venerabilis (Peter the Venerable, abbot
of Cluny) meets Hermannus Dalmata and the Englishman Robertus Ketenensis
(Retinensis, of Chester) 'in the region of the Ebro'. He commissions
them to translate the Qur'an and explanatory documents into Latin.
His notary Petrus Pictaviensis and a Petrus Toletanus (possibly Petrus
Alfunsi?) are added to the team, as well as a native informant anonymously
named 'Mahumeth'.
1142 Hermannus Dalmata, in León, completes his
translation of a Liber generationis Mahumet for the Qur'an project.
1142 Johannes Hispanensis compiles his Epitome totius
astrologiae.
1143, June Hermannus Dalmata, in Tolosa de Guipúzcoa
(or Toulouse?), completes his translation of Ptolemy's Planisphaerio,
dedicated to Thierry de Chartres.
1143, June-July. Robertus Ketenensis completes his Latin
version of the Qur'an for Petrus Venerabilis. The text is delivered
with two tracts against Islam translated by Hermannus Dalmata and
a prefatory letter in which Robertus describes the translation as
'a digression from [his] principle studies of astronomy and geometry'.
1143 Robertus Ketenensis is archdeacon of Pamplona.
1143 Portugal becomes a kingdom.
1143 Hermannus Dalmata, in Béziers, writes (a
revised version of) De essentiis, dedicated to Robertus Ketenensis.
1144 Rudolfus Brugensis (from Bruges), in Tolosa, translates
Ptolemy's Planisphaerio.
1144 Robertus Ketenensis translates Morienus's De compositione
alchemie.
1145 Robertus Ketenensis, in Segovia, translates al-Khwarizmi's
Algebra.
1145 Plato Tibernensis, in Barcelona, translates Abraham
Savasorda's Liber Embadorum.
c.1145 The method for manufacturing paper is transferred
to Italy from the Arabs of the east.
1146 Alfonso VII of Castile takes Cordoba.
1147 Robertus Ketinensis translates or writes a commentary
on Ptolemy.
1148 Hermannus Dalmata translates Zael's Fatidica.
1148 Burgundio Pisanus translates John of Damascus's
De orthodoxa fide.
1148 Jews are expelled from the Almohad caliphate in
Andalusia. They move to the Catholic kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and
Catalonia. Maimonedes' family is forced to leave Cordoba.
1149 Robertus Ketenensis writes a set of astronomical
tables for the meridian of London.
1150 Alfonso VII of Castille proclaims himself 'king
of the three religions'.
1151 Burgundio Pisanus translates John Chrysostom's
homilies on Matthew, for Pope Eugene III.
1152 Johannes, formerly bishop of Segovia, succedes
Raimundus as archbishop of Toledo.
1152/66 'Avendauth' (Ibn Daud), in Toledo, with Gundisalvi,
translates Avicenna's De anima for Archbishop Johannes.
1153 Johannes Hispanensis translates a Liber de nativitatibus
by Albohali (Yahyâ b. Gâlib, Abû Alî el-Chaiyât)
c.1154 Eugenius 'Amiratus regis Siciliae', in Palermo,
translates Ptolemy's Optica from Arabic.
1155 Anselm, archbishop of Ravenna, debates with Basil
of Achrida at Thessalonica.
1155 Burgundio Pisanus translates Nemesius's De natura
hominis, dedicated to Fredericus Barbarossa.
1156/62 Henricus Aristippus, in Sicily, translates Plato's
Meno from Greek into Latin, dedicated to 'Roboratus fortune', an Englishman
who is about to return to England. He also translates Phaedo and the
4th book of Aristotle's Meteorologie.
1157 Gerardus Cremonensis is named in Toledo.
1157 Castile separates from León.
1158 Pascalis de Roma, in Constantinople, translates
into Latin a dialogue between a Jew and a Christian.
1159 John of Salisbury writes Metalogicon, which allows
that a translation may add details from other sources.
1159 Ibn Ezra (Aven Ezra), a Jewish scholar from Barcelona,
travels to England.
c.1160 Ibn Ezra, in Narbonne, translates into Hebrew
a commentary on al-Fargani.
c.1160 An anonymous hand in Sicily, aided by Eugenius
'Amiratus', translates Ptolemy's Almagest from a Greek manuscript
brought from Constantinople by Aristippus, an envoy of the Sicilian
king. The work had been translated into Arabic in 827 and would be
translated from Arabic into Latin in Toledo in 1175.
1161 Foundation of commercial and maritime law (Constitutum
usus) in Pisa.
1163 Alexander III prohibits monks from studying medicine
and law.
1165 Maimonedes arrives in Cairo, where he seems to
have been based until his death in 1204.
1168 Rufinus Alexandrinus and Dominicus Marrothim, in
Murcia, translate Honein's Quaestiones medicae.
1169 Pascalis Romanus, in Constantinople, translates
the Greek Kiranides into Latin.
1169-98 Ibn Rochd (Averroes), in Marrakesh, writes his
commentaries on Aristotle for Abu Yaqub.
c.1170 Courrier pigeon postal service between Cairo
and Baghdad.
1170 Thomas Beckett, archbishop of Canterbury, is murdered
by agents of Henry II.
1171 Revision of Johannes Hispanensis's translation
of Abu Ma'shar's Introductorium. The revision is attributed to Gerardus
Cremonensis.
1171-73 Burgundio Pisanus, ambassador to Constantinople,
translates John Chrysostom's 88 homilies on John.
c.1175? 'Galippus mixtarab' (Mozarab), in Toledo, verbally
explains Ptolemy's Almagest for 'Girardus Tholetanus'. Daniel de Merlai
(of Morley) is there to observe the process, as described in his Philosophia.
1175? Gerardus Cremonensis, in Toledo, translates Ptolemy's
Almagest.
1175-1200 Johannes (John of Oxford) is bishop of Norwich.
He is the addressee of Daniel de Merlai's Philosophia. (Is this the
only way the date 1175 can be attributed to the Ptolemy translation?
Note that the Almagest had been translated in Sicily, directly from
Greek, in c. 1160.)
1175 Matthew of Vendome writes his Ars Versificatoria,
criticizing word-for-word translation.
1176 Gerardus Cremonensis and 'Dominicus archidiaconus'
(Gundisalvi) are named in Toledo.
1178 Roger writes astronomical tables for the meridian
of Hereford. There is no evidence that he had travelled to Hispania.
1179 Third Latran Council. Burgundio Pisanus is present.
Pope Alexander III prohibits trade between Christians and Arabs, obliges
each cathedral to employ a master to teach free, confirms that the
licencia docendi is to be given to any clerk able to teach.
1180 John of London, returning from a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, founds a college in Paris, the "Collège des
Dix-Huit", since it had eighteen students.
1181 Philippe Auguste closes the Yechiva of Paris.
1185 Burgundio Pisanus translates Galen's De sectis
medicorum.
c.1185 The Cathars translate part of the Bible into
French.
1187 Gerardus Cremonensis dies after his stay in Toledo,
where his team translated 71 works from Arabic (Alexander, Apollonius,
Archimedes, Aristotle, Autolykus, Diokles, Euclid, Galen, Hippocrates,
Menelaos, Ptolemy, Themistius, Theodosius, Djabir, Avicenna, Abhabuchri,
al-Farabi, Alfragani, Harib, Messahala, Maseweih, Muhammed ben Musa,
Anaritii, Rhazes, Serapionis).
1189 Massacre of Jews in London.
1190 Collective suicide of Jews in York.
1190 Maimonedes' Guide for the Perplexed is completed
in Arabic in Cairo. It will be translated into Latin before 1234.
1191 Marcus Toledanus is named in documents at Toledo.
1194 Maimonedes addresses a letter on astrology to certain
Jews of Marseille.
1194 An-Nasir, prince of Grenada, advances to Madrid
and defeats the army of Navarra at Alarcos.
1198 Johannes Lodoycus Tetrapharmacos translates Al-Zahrawi's
Antidotarium.
1198 Fredericus II is crowned king of Sicily.
1198 Sancho I of Portugal writes his Cantiga in Portuguese-Gallego.
1198 Marcus Toledanus is again named in documents at
Toledo.
1199 Pope Innocent II affirms the priority of pontifical
over imperial power (Venerabilem).
On to the thirteenth century
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