Constantinus Africanus

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Constantinus Africanus looking at the harness

Constantinus Africanus , Latin also Constantinus Africanus Cassinensis , German Constantin (von Africa) , Konstantin (the African) or Konstantin von Afrika (* between 1010 and 1020 in Carthage or Kairouan in what is now Tunisia ; † December 22, around 1087 in the Montecassino monastery ) a North African ( "African" or Iriqiyanischer ) medical researcher , specialist author and translator and lay brother of the Benedictine order . Its Arabic name is unknown. He had an influence on scientific medicine through his work at the school of Salerno and as a translator in Montecassino.

Life

The few surviving biographical information about Constantinus Africanus come mainly from Petrus Diaconus (approx. 1107–1140), the librarian and archivist of the Monte Cassino monastery .

Tunisia and student days

Constantinus was born in what is now Tunisia , called Africa since Roman times (hence he used the suffix Africanus or Afer ). His parents belonged to the Arabized Berber population .

He went on study trips that took him through the Orient . This phase of life extended to an impressive 39 years for Constantinus. He went to Baghdad ( Mesopotamia ), studied medicine and became thoroughly familiar with the language, medicine and other sciences of the Chaldeans , Persians and Arabs . Also Cairo is mentioned as a place of study. Constantinus Africanus was also connected to the Kairouan Medical School

According to tradition, he earned his income while traveling through shops, mainly with medicinal drugs . During his Mesopotamian time, Constantin is said to have come with his trading partners to their home countries in India, Ethiopia and Egypt. In this way he acquired detailed knowledge of Arabic medicine and the healing methods and remedies that are known and practically used in literature .

After returning to his native North Africa, Constantin Africanus had great success as a doctor and teacher with a high level of knowledge. Some jealous colleagues accused him of sorcery . When the pressure became too great and Constantine had to fear for his life after being informed, he secretly left Carthage on a ship and traveled via Sicily to southern Italy. There he went into hiding disguised as a beggar and between 1057 and 1077 reached the city and surroundings of Salerno , which was ruled by Duke Robert Guiscardin (approx. 1015-1085) and where his brother recognized him.

The School of Salerno depicted in an edition of the Avicenna Canon
Constantinus at the lecture

Salerno

In southern Italy he came to the medical school of Salerno as a teacher around 1077 p. 526 and attracted great attention through his work. His conversion to the Christian faith remained unresolved, but he probably became a lay brother at best and hardly a monk (monachus). He criticized the quality of the medical literature available and on a further three-year study trip, which was specially designed for the literary school of Salerno, brought together medical works from the Greek-Arab world. As a translator, he contributed to the development of a medical terminology, which was characterized by the expansion of terminology, the possibility of abstraction and its establishment in practice and in the teaching of Artes .

Montecassino

In 1078 he settled under Abbot Desiderius, later Pope Viktor III. , finally settled in the monastery of Montecassino , which he had presumably already joined before, and as a baptized lay brother translated his collected works, including the writings of Hippocrates and Galenus available to him in Arabic versions , as compendiums into the Latin language. He established the excellent reputation of the Salerno School .

The second focus of his extensive translation work were sources from Arabic and Persian, Jewish and Islamic authors. Here he translated the great masters of medicine handed down in Arabic into Latin books: Razes Ali Ibn Massaouia Baghdad , Ibn Imran (9th century), Ibn Suleiman and Ibn al-Jazzar (10th century). These translations were used as textbooks from the Middle Ages to the 17th century and are now in libraries in Italy, Germany, France, Belgium and England.

Plagiarism allegation

Some contemporaries complained that Constantine signed not only his own works, but also those that he had translated from Arabic and edited according to his name, and thus gave the impression of being the only author. This applies in particular to the "Zad Al Mussāfir" by Ibn al-Jazzar . Constantine, however, already took up the topic in his introduction to Zad Al Mussāfir and wrote (somewhat casually according to today's understanding): “If people intend to investigate what comes from me in this book, I let them sleep in their stupidity. I thought it was my job to sign it, because people envy other people for their work ... "

Later in the history of science , too, the accusation of plagiarism of the often permissive translations emerged from time to time. However, it is unsustainable. According to his statements, Constantine did not want to provide the Salerno School with any independent compendia, but only “compilations” and appropriate “compositions” for school use . Accordingly, he also referred to himself as "coadunator" , "compilator" or "abbreviator" . As such, he played a preparatory role for the acceptance and adoption of the values ​​(reception) of Greek-Arabic medicine, which began in the high Middle Ages . His work was so important for the medical school of Salerno that the era that began with him is called "High Salerno " . The honorary title of "orientis et occidentis magister" given to him by Petrus Diaconus, the archivist at the Monte Cassino monastery, underlines this.

Writings, Latin adaptations and translations

  • ʿAli ibn al-ʿAbbas al-Madschūsi , also known as Haly (filius) Abbas:
    • Liber Pantegni , also called Pantechne : First translation of the encyclopedia of Greek-Arabic healing knowledge, which is divided into theory and practice.
    • Al Kamil , the first three parts of which were lost at sea.
  • Hunain ibn Ishāq (Johannitius):
    • De oculis (also Liber de oculis Constantini Africani ): eye diseases
    • Isagoge ad Tegni Galeni (by Hunain ibn Ishāq and his nephew Hubaysch ibn al-Hasan)
  • Hippocrates
  • Theophilos (Protospatharios): Peri urōn
  • Galenos :
    • Megatechne : Book on the therapeutic method of Galenos
  • Ishaq ibn Imran :
    • al-Maqala fi al-Malikhukiya ( De melancholia ): The Book of Melancholy
  • Isaak ben Salomon Israeli , Ibn Suleiman or Isaac Israeli ben Solomon:
    • Liber febribus, Liber de dietis universalibus et particularibus : The book of dietary rules
    • Liber de urinis : The book about urine
    • The book about the pulse
    • Omnia opera Ysaac in hoc volumine contenta: cum quibusdam aliis opusculis. Bartholomaeus Trot, Lyon 1515 ( online ) (Latin translation of the works of Isaac by Constantine the African ).
  • Ibn al-Jazzār :
    • De Gradibus or Liber graduum (= "Adminiculum")
    • Zad Al Mussāfir (Viaticus peregrinantis) : Handbook for traveling doctors
    • Liber de stomacho : stomach diseases
    • De elephantiasi
    • De coitu : about sex life
    • De oblivione
  • Opera: Constantini Africani post Hippocratem et Galenum, quorum - Graece linguae doctus - sedulus fuit lector, medicorum nulli prorsus, multis doctissimis testibus, posthabendi opera [...]. Basel ( Henricus Petri ) 1536.
  • Summi in omni philosophia viri Constantini Africani medici operum reliqua [...]. Basel (Henricus Petrus) 1539.

The manuscripts of medicine that he found in Tunis and brought to Cassino also include the works:

    • The Kairouan books
    • The El Baghdadi books

literature

See also

Web links

Commons : Constantine the African  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b In the time of Constantine, Tunisia was called Ifriqiya , derived from Africa , the name of the former Roman model province. The name was later adopted for the entire continent (see web link Muslimheritage.com)
  2. ↑ Manuscript in the Schoenberg Collection - Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image (Version of March 10, 2003) (English)
  3. ↑ a b see web link Salerno and Constantine the African from FSTC Limited
  4. ↑ Raphaela Veit: The Book of Fevers by Isaac Israeli and its meaning in the Latin West. A contribution to the reception of Arab science in the West. Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden 2003 (= Sudhoffs Archiv, 51), ISBN 3-515-08324-3 , p. 51
  5. ^ Philibert Schmitz: History of the Benedictine order. Translated into German and ed. by Ludwig Räber. 2 volumes. Zurich 1948, p. 191.
  6. ↑ a b c d see web link Arno Forsius: Constantinus Africanus
  7. ↑ a b see web link James Joseph Walsh: Constantine Africanus
  8. ↑ a b c d from Latin translations of the 12th century in the English language Wikipedia
  9. ↑ Gundolf Keil: "Isâk künig Salomons sun made a buoch in Arabia, daz Got never bezzerz created" - The representation of the school of Kairouan in Würzburg and Breslau of the 13th century. In: Mamoun Fansa, Karen Aydin, Menso Folkerts, G. Keil, Helmuth Schneider u. a. (Ed.): Ex oriente lux? Paths to Modern Science. Accompanying volume for the special exhibition in the Augusteum, Oldenburg 2009–2010. Main / Oldenburg 2009 (= series of publications by the Landesmuseum für Natur und Mensch. Volume 70), pp. 212–225 and 495–526 as well as (Detlev Quintern) 429–460.
  10. ↑ Gundolf Keil (2012/13), p. 17 f.
  11. ↑ see literature Annette Hettinger: To the life story and the date of death of Constantinus Africanus
  12. ^ Heinrich Schipperges: Constantinus Africanus Cassinensis [his arab. Name remained unknown] , in: Wolfgang U. Eckart and Christoph Gradmann : Ärztelexikon. From antiquity to the 20th century , 1st edition CH Beck Munich 1995, pp. 98 + 99; 2nd edition Springer Berlin et.al. 2001 under the title: Medical dictionary. From antiquity to the present , pp. 81 + 82; 3rd edition. Springer Berlin et.al. 2006, p. 84; Print version ISBN 978-3-540-29584-6 , online version ISBN 978-3-540-29585-3 .
  13. ↑ Gerhard Baader: The development of medical terminology in the high and late Middle Ages. In: Gundolf Keil, Peter Assion (Ed.): Specialized prose research. Eight lectures on medieval art literature. Berlin 1974, pp. 88-123, here: pp. 94-110.
  14. ↑ Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in terms of art and cultural history. (Mathematical and natural scientific dissertation Würzburg 1994) Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 65). ISBN 3-8260-1667-X , pp. 118-121.
  15. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j from Constantine the African in the English language Wikipedia
  16. ↑ see web link Heinrich Schipperges: Constantinus Africanus
  17. ↑ Gundolf Keil: Pantegni, Pantechne. In: Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil, Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1096.
  18. ↑ Charles Burnett, Danielle Jacquart (eds.): Constantine the Africa and ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Mağūsī: The Pantegni and Related Texts. Leiden 1994 (= Studies in Ancient Medicine. Volume 10).
  19. ↑ Gundolf Keil: "blutken - bloedekijn". Notes on the etiology of the hyposphagma genesis in the 'Pommersfeld Silesian Eye Booklet' (1st third of the 15th century). With an overview of the ophthalmological texts of the German Middle Ages. In: Specialized prose research - Crossing borders. Volume 8/9, 2012/2013, pp. 7–175, here: p. 8.
  20. ↑ Dominique Haefeli-Till: The 'Liber de oculis' of Constantinus Africanus: translation and commentary. (Medical dissertation) Zurich 1977 (= Zurich medical historical treatises , new series, 121).
  21. ↑ Heinrich Schipperges : The Assimilation of Arabic Medicine through the Latin Middle Ages. Wiesbaden 1964 (= Sudhoffs Archiv , supplement 3), p. 33
  22. ↑ Gregor Maurach : Johannicius: Isagoge ad Techne Galieni. In: Sudhoff's archive. Vol. 62, 1978, pp. 148-174.
  23. ↑ Friedrich v. Zglinicki : Uroscopy in the fine arts. An art and medical historical study of the urine examination. Ernst Giebeler, Darmstadt 1982, ISBN 3-921956-24-2 , pp. 6 and 8.
  24. ^ Moritz Steinschneider : Constantins Lib. De gradibus and ibn al-Gezzars Adminiculum. In: German Archive for the History of Medicine and Medicinische Geographie 2, 1879, pp. 1–22
  25. ^ De gradibus quos vocant simplicium liber. In: Constantini Africani post Hippocratem et Galenum, quorum - Graece linguae doctus - sedulus fuit lector, medicorum nulli prorsus, multis doctissimis testibus, posthabendi opera [...]. Basel (Henricus Petrus ) 1536, pp. 342–387.
personal data
SURNAME Constantinus Africanus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Constantine the African; Constantinus Africanus Cassinensis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lay brother of the Benedictine order and medical researcher
DATE OF BIRTH between 1010 and 1020
PLACE OF BIRTH Kairouan
DATE OF DEATH around 1087
Place of death Montecassino Monastery