Attempt
at a chronology of Hispanic translation history
THIRTEENTH CENTURY
1200 Accursius de Parma translates Galen's De Virtutibus
cibariorum.
c.1200 Gaufridus de Vinosalvo (Geoffrey de Vinsauf)
visits Rome and Spain.
c.1200/47 Philippus (Clericus) Tripolotanus translates
pseudo-Aristotle's Secreta secretorum for Guido de Valentia, Bishop
of Tripoli. He is ordered to translate 'sometimes literally and sometimes
according to the sense, for the Arabs have one idiom and the Latins
another'.
1202 Leonardo of Pisa writes his Liber abaci, introducing
Hindu-Arabic numerals.
1204 Constantinople falls to Rome.
1206 Anonymous Latin translation of Ptolemy's Quadripartitum.
1208 Prohibition of a disputatio between Christians
and Jews in Paris.
1208-1247 Rodericus Toletanus (Jimenez) is archbishop
of Toledo.
1209-1229 Innocent III's campaign against the Albigeois.
1209-1210 Marcus Toledanus, canon at the Toledo cathedral,
translates the Qur'an at the request of don Mauricio (archdeacon of
Toledo and bishop-elect of Burgos) and archbishop Rodericus of Toledo.
The translator is said to have traveled to Montpellier and Salerno
in order to study medicine.
1210 Council of Paris prohibits the reading of Aristotle's
books on natural philosophy as well as all commentaries on them. The
Aristotelian texts arriving in Paris are mostly from Constantinople
and translated from Greek into Latin.
1210 Geoffroy de Villehardouin writes his Conqueste
de Constantinople in French.
c.1213-1216 Judah al-Harizi (1170-1235), a Jewish scholar
born in Toledo and living in northern Spain, translates into Hebrew
the Arabic Maqamat by al-Hariri (1054-1122). He then travels to the
East where, sometime after 1216, he composes his own Hebrew Maqamat.
Al-Harizi has also translated Moses ibn Ezra, Maimonides, Ali ibn
Rudwan, Hunain ibn Ishaq and Galen. (Drory)
1212, July Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. The Almohads
lose Islamic Spain except for the kingdom of Granada.
1213, June Marcus Toledanus translates Ibn Tumart's
Aqida (profession of faith) into Latin for don Mauricio.
1215 Fourth Latran Council defines the doctrine of transsubstantiation,
the rules of oral confession, the Inquisition and the exclusion of
Jews from social life. The last-mentioned measure is refused by the
kings of Castile and Aragon. 'Magister Michael Scotus' is named as
accompanying the archbishop of Toledo. The ban on reading Aristotle
is extended to the Metaphysics.
c.1215 The clergy is prohibited from practising medicine.
1215 The pope proclaims the statutes of the university
of Paris.
1217 Philippe Auguste, in Paris, orders Jews to wear
a distinctive sign.
1217, August Michael Scotus, at Toledo, completes his
translation of al-Bitruji's De motibus caelorum with the help of 'Albuteus
levita'. Al-Bitruji (Alpetragius, Al-Bitrûgi) was still alive
and in Spain at the time of the translation.
1218 Salio (canon of Padua), at Toledo, translates Abu
Bakr al-Hassan's On Nativities with the help of a learned Jew named
David.
1219 Guillelmus Anglicus, in Marseille, writes De urina
non visa. He is said to have also been a translator from Arabic.
1220 Michael Scotus moves to Bologna, having translated
Aristotle's Historia animalium, De partibus anumalium and De generatione
animalium. These translations were presumably carried out at Toledo.
Michael Scotus is said to have translated nineteen books on animals,
as well as Aristotle's Physica and Averroes's commentary on De celo
et mundo.
1220 Leonardo Fibonacci Pisano writes his Practica geometrie.
1224 Fredericus II founds the University of Naples,
to be reformed in 1231 and 1232, ensuring control over its proceedings.
1224 Majorca is taken by Christians.
1225 c. The Castilian Semjança del mundo is a
translation of material from the Etymologiae of Isidorus Hispalensis
(San Isidoro) and the Imago Mundi of Honorius Augustodunensis.
1227 Fredericus II is excommunicated, largely for not
having organized a Crusade.
1227 Alphredus Anglicus (of Serechel), in Hispania,
translates De vegetabilus working from an Arabic version by Hunain
inb Ishaq.
1227-36 Michael Scotus is Fredericus II's court philosopher
in Naples.
1229 Synod of Toulouse prohibits the reading of the
Bible in vernacular languages.
1229 Masters and students leave Paris.
1229 Fredericus II crowns himself king of Jerusalem,
having used negotiation with the sultan to obtain Bethlehem, Nazareth
and free access for Christians to part of the holy city.
1229 First documents concerning the foundation of a
university at Cambridge.
1230 Fredericus's excommunication is annulled.
1230 Islamic Extremadura is taken by Portugal.
1231 Fredericus II restrains the University of Salerno
by granting it a royal statute.
1231 Fredericus II establishes a commercial treaty with
the ruler of Tunis.
1231 Yehuda ben Mosé ha-Kohen, with Guillelmus
Anglicus, writes a Latin recension of Azarquel's Azafea.
1231-33 Legislation against the Cathars in France; many
escape to Catalonia.
1232 The sultan of Damascus gives Fredericus II an embellished
manuscript Planetarium. The return gift is a white bear and a white
peacock which Fredericus had earlier received from Egypt.
1232 Astronomical tables for London mention other tables
for Paris, Marseille, Pisa, Palermo, Constantinople, Genoa and Toledo.
1233 Stephanus Caesaraugustanus, in Lleida, translates
Liber Fiduciae de simplicibus medicinis.
1233 Juda ben Salomon ha-Cohen, in Toledo, aged 18,
corresponds with Fredericus II's 'philosopher'. He will later write
in Arabic and translate his own works into Hebrew when he goes to
Tuscany.
1235 Fredericus II proclaims the first imperial law
written in German.
1236 Castile takes Cordoba.
1236-1240 Theodorus 'Philosophus' Antiochenus follows
Michael Scotus as Fredericus II's astrologer. He is the translator
of Averroes's proemium to Aristotle's Physica.
1238 Valencia is taken by Christians.
1239 Fredericus II is accused by Gregorius IX of believing
only what is proved by the force and reason of nature. He is excommunicated
for the second time.
1240 Disputatio between Christians and Jews in Paris.
1240 Robertus Grossatesta translates Aristotle's Ethics.
1240-41 Fredericus II corrects Theodorus's translation
of Moamyn's De scientia venandi per aves.
1240-44 Hermannus Alemmanus (Tuetonicus, Germanicus)
translates Aristotle and Averroes. He also prepares a Latin translation
of an Arabic gloss on Aristotle's Rhetorica, which he attribites to
al-Farabi. (Murphy 1974: 91)
1242 Fredericus II sends a series of questions to Egypt,
Syria, Iraq, Asia Minor and Yemen, and later to the Almohad caliph
of Morocco, who sends them to ibn Sabin, a philosopher born in Spain
and living in Ceuta.
1243 Hermannus Alemannus translates Summa quorundam
Alexandrinorum.
1243 Murcia falls into Christian hands.
1245 Alexius translates Brontologium into Latin and
Ikrabadsin's Antidotarium into Greek.
1245 At the Council of Lyon, Pope Innocent IV deposes
Fredericus II.
1245-46 Third mission sent by the Pope to the Great
Khan.
1245-48 Albertus Magnus, having studied at Padua, Hildesheim,
Freiburg, Ratisbon, Strasbourg and Cologne, is at the university of
Paris. Thomas Aquinas is his student.
1246 Castile takes Jaen.
1248 Fernando III of Castile takes Seville.
1248 Louis IX orders the burning of all Hebrew manuscripts
in Paris.
1248 Albertus Magnus returns to Cologne from Paris.
1248 Seville is taken by Christians.
1249 'Wilhelmis de Brabantia [de Moerbeka] transtulit
omnes libros Aristotelis de graeco in latinum verbum a verbo [...]
ad instantium sancto Thomae de Aquino Doctoris'. But Thorndike (II,
599) does not set much store by this reference.
c.1250 Nicolo and Maffeo Polo leave Venice for China.
c. 1250 Latest date for translation of Aristotle's Rhetorica
from Greek into Latin, possibly by Bartholomew of Messina (Murphy
1974: 92).
1250. April 9 Completion of the translation Libros de
los animales que cazan, also called Libro de Moamín.
1250 Juda Mosca el Menor (Jehuda ben Moses?, ben Moshe
ha-Kohén?) and Garci Perez (clérigo) translate Lapidario
for Alfonso X. According to the prologue the translation had been
begun in 1243.
1251 Translation of Calila e Dimna for Alfonso X. (Given
as 1261 in the ms.)
1251 Year of reference for the Alphonsine Tables.
1252 (?) Fernando III's tomb has inscriptions in Latin,
Castilian, Arabic and Hebrew.
1252-84 Reign of Alfonso X of Castile.
1252-56 Isak ibn Sid (Zag), employed at the Toledo synagogue,
compiles the Libros del saber de astronomia del Rey Alonso in Castilian
for Alfonso X.
1253 Florence produces gold coins (florins).
1253 Don Fadrique, Alfonso X's brother, sponsors the
Castilian translation known as the Libro de los engaños e los
asayamientos de las mugeres (Sendebar).
1254 Alfonso X unsuccessfully tries to establish a centre
of Arabic and Latin learning in Seville.
1254. March 12. Judá ben Mosé Hacohen
('Yhuda fi de Mosse Alcohen') starts his Castilian translation of
Aly Aben Ragel's El libro conplido en los iudizios de las estrellas
(written 1037) for Alfonso X. The Castilian version will later be
translated into Latin by Aegidius de Thebaldis (from Parma) and Petrus
de Regio.
1255 The arts course at the university of Paris includes
all the newly translated Aristotle.
1255 Bonacossa , a Jew in Padua, translates Averroes'
Colliget.
1255 Ferrando de Toledo translates Al-Zarkali's Acafea
(Al-Safi'ha) into Castilian for Alfonso X. His version will be improved
in 1277 by Bernaldo el Arabigo and Abraham.
1256? Hermannus Alemannus, in Toledo, translates Averroes'
abridgement of Aristotle's Poetics and Alfarabi's glosses on Aristotle's
Rhetoric. The latter is dedicated to the bishop of Burgos.
1256 Aegidius de Thebaldis (from Parma) and Petrus de
Regio (Alfonso X's protonotarius), translate Ali ibn Ridwan's commentary
on Ptolemy's Quadripartitum into Latin from the Castilian of Judá
ben Mosé Hacohen (Jehuda ben Moses).
1256 Judá ben Mosé Hacohen ('alfaquí')
and Guillermo Arremón de Aspa ('clérigo'), in Toledo,
translate .IIII. libros de la ochava espera et de sus .XLVIII. figuras
con sus estrellas into Castilian for Alfonso X.
1256 Translation into Castilian and then into Latin
of Picatrix, a book of astrological magic, from an eleventh-century
Arabic text by Abu Maslama of Madrid.
1256 Albertus Magnus is in Rome.
1257 Alfonso X of Castile and Richard of Cornwall are
elected anti-emperors of the German empire.
1258? 'G. magister fil. mag. Johannes', in Lleida, translates
Al-Gafiki's Simplici medicina.
1258 Judá ben Moses and Juan d'Aspa, in Toledo,
translate Costa ben Luca's Libro de Alcora.
1259 Moses Ibn Tibbon translates Abu Jafar Ahmed's Viaticum
into Hebrew; criticizes Constantinus's earlier version as 'often abbreviated,
obscure and seriously altered in arrangement'.
1259 Alfonso X spends a whole year in Toledo.
1259. February 26. Judá ben Mosé Hacohen
('alfaquí'), in Toledo, and Juan d'Aspa ('clérigo',
in Seville?) complete the translation into Castilian of the Libro
de las Cruces for Alfonso X.
1260-68 Alfonso X in Granada.
1260 Brunetto Latini's embassy to Alfonso X.
1260, Jan. Wilhelmus de Moerbeka, a Flemish Dominican
at Thebes in Greece, completes his translation of Aristotle's De partibus
animalium.
1260, April Wilhelmus de Moerbeka, at Nicaea in Greece,
completes his translation from Greek of Alexander of Aphrodisias's
Opusculum De fato. He perhaps also completes his version of Aristotle's
De caelo (Books I and II being a revision of Robertus Grosseteste's
version) and Politica.
1260, Dec. Wilhelmus de Moerbeka, at Orvieto, translates
Aristotle's other books on animals, from Greek into Latin. Michael
Scotus had translated the books from Arabic some time before 1220.
1261 Alfonso X imposes a unified system of weights and
measures.
c.1261 Thomas Aquinas moves from Paris to Italy, where
he lives in Viterbo, Orvieto and Rome.
1262 Disputatio between Jews and Christians in Barcelona,
before Jaume I of Aragon.
1262 Cadiz is taken by Christians.
1263 Johannes Brixiensis, in Montpellier, with help
of Jacob ben Machir (Prophatius), a physician in Montpellier, translate
Arzarquiel's Azafea into Latin.
1264 Habraym ('iuif') translates La Escala de Mahoma
from Arabic into Castilian. Bonaventure de Siene (Italian, 'notaire
et escriven'), also working for Alfonso X, translates the text from
Castilian into French (and Latin?).
c.1265 Brunetto Latini writes his Trésor in French.
1266 Bonaventure de Siene drafts credentials of Alfonso's
envoys to France to arrange marriage of Alfonso's eldest son and Blanche,
daughter of Louis IX.
1266 Arsenius, a monk, translates Al-Zanati's Geomantia
into Greek.
1266-67 Roger Bacon, in Paris, sends his Opus majus,
Opus minus and Opus tercium to Pope Clement IV, seeking patronage.
1266-75 Sancho de Aragon (Alfonso X's brother-in-law)
is archbishop of Toledo and a patron of learning.
1267-c.1277 'Don Abraham', Alfonso X's physician, translates
Ibn Heitham, Qur'an Sutra 70, and Zarkali's Al-Saficha into Castilian.
1268, Sept. Wilhelmus de Moerbeka, at Viterbo, completes
translations from Greek of Proclus's Elementatio theologica and Ammonius's
commentary on Aristotle's De interpretatione. He perhaps also completes
his revision of James of Venice's version of Aristotle's De anima.
1269 Wilhelmus de Moerbeka translates almost all the
works of Archimedes from Greek into Latin, as well as Eutochius's
commentaries on Archimedes.
1270 Wilhelmus de Moerbeka perhaps completes his translation
of Aristotle's Rhetorica.
1270 Stephanus Messanensis (Takki), from Messina, a
court translator in Naples, translates pseudo-Hermes.
1271 Rufinus (of Alessandria), in Murcia, translates
a work of opthalmology from Arabic.
1272 Judá ben Moses Hacohen, a physician in Toledo,
revises the Alfonsine Tables for Alfonso X.
1275 Alfonso X renounces his candidature as emperor.
1275 Alleged witches are burned alive in Toulouse.
1276 Judá ben Moses Hacohen, with Samuel (Levi),
revises Libro de las figuras, Libro del Saber.
1276 Juan de Mesina compiles the Libros del saber de
Astronomia del Rey Don Alonso.
1276 Judá ben Mosé Hacohen and Juan de
Mesina are 'ayuntadores' for translation of Ochava esfera.
1276-82 Galfridus Anglicus (Geoffrey of Eversley) is
simultaneously clerk to Edward I and notary to Alfonso X.
1277 Wilhelmus de Moerbeka, archbishop of Corinth, translates
Galen's De alimentis from Greek into Latin.
1277 Rabi Zag el de Toledo ('nuestro sabio') writes
Quadrante con que rectificar.
1277 Musa (Moses), in Palermo, translates pseudo-Hippocrates
for Charles d'Anjou.
1277 Etienne Tempier, bishop of Paris, condemns 219
erroneous opinions assigned to Siger de Brabant, including the doctrines
of Averroes. Albertus Magnus goes from Cologne to Paris to defend
Thomas Aquinas in the affair.
1277 Alfonso X commands 'Bernaldo el arabigo' in Burgos
and Abraham ('alfaquí') to carry out a second translation of
the Acafea, correcting Ferrando de Toledo's version completed 20 years
previously.
1277 Nicolo Spinola, a Genovese trader, opens up a trade
route by sea around Gibraltar to Flanders.
1278 Roger Bacon condemned to prison for introducing
'some suspected novelties'.
1279 Faradj ben Salem (a Jew from Girgent), in Palermo,
starts translating Arabic medical works for Charles d'Anjou.
1279 Cartagena taken by Christians.
1279 An observatory is built in Beijing.
1280-98 Gonzalo García Gudiel is archbishop of
Toledo and 'a patron of learning'.
1280 Paravicius, physician in Venice, translates Teisir
(Zohr) into Latin.
1280/84 Armengab (Armengaud) Blassii, in Montpellier,
Philippe le Bel's physician, translates Avicenna and Galen.
1280-1300 Jehuda ben Astruc, a physician in Barcelona
and interpreter for Jaume I and Alfonso X, compiles a Libre de paraules
in Catalan from Arabic.
1281 Wilhelmus de Moerbeka, archbishop of Corinth, translates
works by Proclus from Greek into Latin.
1282 Alfonso X is deposed.
c.1282 Arnaldus de Villanova, in Barcelona, translates
Avicenna, Costa ben Luca, Galen, al-Kindi and Ibn Zohr.
1284-95 Reign of Sancho IV (el Bravo) of Castile, who
orders a Castilian translation of Brunetto Latini's French Livres
dou Tresor.
1284 Venice mints gold coins (ducats).
1285 Autopsy on a victim of the plague in Cremona.
1285 Eyeglasses are manufactured in Italy.
1285 Tarifa takes by Christians.
1290c. Simon Januensis, with help of Abraham Tortuosiensis,
translates Serapion's De simplicibus.
1290-1302 Armengab, in Montpellier, translates writings
by Maimonides.
1290 Expulsion of the 16,000 Jews living in England.
c.1292 Dante writes Vita nuova.
1292 Marco Polo returns to Venice after twenty years
in China.
1293 The Cortes of Valladolid annul the Jews' right
to fixed property and special judges.
1293 Probable date of the Castilian translation of Brunetto
Latini's French Livres dou Tresor.
1296 Expulsion of the Lombards from France.
1296 The Pope instructs the clergy not to pay taxes
to secular authorities.
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