Gerhard of Cremona

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Gerhard von Cremona ( Gherardo da Cremona or Gerardus Cremonensis , * (around) 1114 in Lombardy , perhaps in Cremona , Italy; † 1187 in Toledo , Spain) was a scholar and important translator of Arabic natural history and medical writings into Latin. He was one of the most productive translators of the so-called Translation School of Toledo .

Live and act

Little is known about his origins and his curriculum vitae. More than 100 years after his death, his biographer, the Dominican Francesco Pipino , wrote that Gerhard moved to Toledo very early out of “Love for Almagest ” (the standard astronomical work by Claudius Ptolemy ) , where he probably went from Italy in the 1140s came into contact with the Arabic language. It was there in the 12th century under Gerhard von Cremona (and the founder of the translation school Dominicus Gundissalinus ) the most important center of medieval Europe for the translation of primarily scientific and philosophical works from Arabic. Gerhard learned Arabic and was soon able not only (starting from a translation by the Mozarabic scholars Galippus, actually Ghalib or Galib) the Almagest , but also numerous other works such as Avicenna's Canon of Medicine bad more than right into Latin to translate. He then worked for many years as a deacon and teacher at the cathedral chapter in Toledo . He probably held a canon at the Cathedral of Toledo , where a "Magister Gherardus" is attested. Whether he actually stayed in Toledo until his death is not certain, as he is buried in Cremona.

Works

Over the course of more than forty years, Gerhard translated at least 70 philosophical and scientific works from Arabic into Latin , although the attribution cannot be considered certain in all cases. These works include:

His student, the English scholastic Daniel von Morley , passed on one of Gerhard's working methods when translating: his Mozarabic assistant Ghalib (Latinized Galippus) orally translated the text into medieval Castilian , Gerhard listened and wrote the text down in Latin. In the case of Almagest, which was translated from its original language, ancient Greek, first into Syrian and then into Arabic and which Gerhard translated into Latin via the oral detour from Castilian, this long chain of transmission brought with it numerous sources of error. Therefore, Gerhard's translations in their proximity to the original were soon surpassed in part by other translations which, like those by Wilhelm von Moerbeke , were based on Greek originals. Gerhard von Cremona often started from older translations into Latin, compared them with the Arabic original and supplemented them with new translations from Arabic and standardized the terminology. He stayed close to the Arabic original, took over some of its constructions and tried to reproduce it exactly.

Furthermore, independent scientific writings were ascribed to Gerhard , but these are now ascribed to Gerhard von Sabbioneta , a Franciscan and astronomer of the 13th century, or others.

The first printed Latin edition of the Almagest was a translation by Gerhard von Cremona in Venice in 1515.

Gerhard von Cremona made a significant contribution to the fact that works of both ancient Greek and medieval Arabic philosophy and science became known in the Latin world, which then had a lasting influence on the development of scholasticism . Despite the quality of his translations in need of improvement from today's point of view, they retained their influence into the early modern period , as they lived on in the form of quotations in the commentary literature and were often passed down in the manuscripts in synoptic comparison with other translations.

His edition of the Latin translation of Euclid commentary of Al-Nayrizi gave Maximilian Curtze as a supplement to Euclid edition of Heiberg and Heinrich amount out 1899 at Teubner. He found the manuscript in Krakow.

Other works

  • Hubert LL Busard : The Latin translation of the Arabic version of Euclid's 'Elements' commonly ascribed to Gerard of Cremona: Introduction, edition and critical apparatus , Leiden, 1984
  • Anthony Lo Bello (Ed.): Gerard of Cremona's translation of the commentary of Al-Nayrizi on Book I of Euclid's Elements of geometry: with an introductory account of the twenty-two early extant Arabic manuscripts of the Elements. Brill, Leiden 2003 (Medieval philosophy, mathematics, and science, Vol. 2).
  • Robert Steele: Practical chemistry in the twelfth century: Rasis De aluminibus et salibus, translated by Gerard of Cremona. In: Isis 12, 1929, pp. 10–46 (with reproduction of an abbreviated Latin version); German translation: Julius Ruska : The book of alums and salts . Verlag Chemie, 1935.
  • Barnabas Hughes: Gerard of Cremona's translation of Al-Khwarizmi's Al-Jabr: a critical edition, Mediaeval Studies, Volume 48, 1986, pp. 211-263

See also

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Gotthard Strohmaier : Avicenna. Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-41946-1 , p. 144.
  2. ^ Julius Hirschberg , Julius Lippert: The ophthalmology of Ibn Sina. Leipzig 1902; Reprinted in: F. Sezgin (Ed.): Studies on Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037) and his medical works. 4 volumes, Frankfurt am Main 1996 (= Publications of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science. Volume 10-13), Volume 2, pp. 161-352.
  3. ↑ cf. also Ilona Opelt: On the translation technique of Gerhard von Cremona. In: Glotta. Volume 39, 1959, pp. 135-170.
  4. ↑ Morley writes: "Girardus Tholetanus, qui Galippo mixtarabe interpretante Almagesti latinavit [...]".
  5. ↑ Richard Fletcher: An elephant for Charlemagne. Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2005, p. 128 f.
  6. ↑ Jorit Wintjes : Introduction. In: Konrad Goehl : Avicenna and its presentation of the medicinal effects. With an introduction by Jorit Wintjes. Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag, Baden-Baden 2014, ISBN 978-3-86888-078-6 , pp. 5–27, here: p. 22.
  7. ^ E. Meyer, article Gerhard von Cremona, Lexicon of the Middle Ages
personal data
SURNAME Gerhard of Cremona
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gerhard of Toledo; Gherardo da Cremona; Gerardus cremonensis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Translator, deacon, teacher
DATE OF BIRTH 1114
PLACE OF BIRTH Cremona , Italy
DATE OF DEATH 1187
Place of death Toledo , Spain