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1 Notes on the Identity of the Latin Translator of Avicenna's Physics 1 Notes on the Identity of the Latin Translator of Avicenna’s Physics and on Further Anonymous Translations in Twelfth-Century Spain Dag Nikolaus Hasse and Andreas Büttner1 The Physics part of Avicenna’s aš-Šifāʾ was translated from Arabic into Latin in two steps. The first two books and the beginning of the third book were translated in the twelfth century by an unkown translator. About a century later, in the 1270s, the remainder of book three and book four were translated by Juan Gonzalves de Burgos and a companion translator named Salomon. The present paper makes a fresh attempt to lift the anonymity of the earlier translation of the Physics. It also provides evidence for the identification of anonymous translators of further 18 Latin translations of Arabic philosophical texts in twelfth-century Spain. In an earlier study, I have studied a different group of translations: Averroes translations of the thirteenth century. In that case, the key to differentiating between the various translators was their usage of non-technical, non-disciplinary vocabulary, everyday words, particles and short phrases. The stylistic analysis resulted in the attribution of twelve anonymous translations to four different translators, among them Michael Scot.2 The great translation movement in Spain in the twelfth century is a more difficult target for such an analysis. Here too we have many anonymous translations. But the textual situation is more complicated. The translation movement in Spain is much larger, and there is a greater number of anonymous translations. Also, texts by many different authors are involved, not only by one. Some anonymous translations, for instance those of al-Kindī, are very short. In order to keep the size manageable and the corpus coherent, I decided to concentrate on philosophical texts, as exhibited on the table below, and to exclude, for the purpose of the present study, other disciplines such as medicine, astrology, or astronomy. Twelfth-Century Latin Translations of Arabic Philosophical Texts on the Iberian Peninsula anonymous 01-Aristotle, Metaphysics, Alpha Meizôn, fragm. ed. C. Martini 02-Alexander of Aphrodisias, De intellectu ed. J. Ruska 03-Turba philosophorum ed. G. Théry 04-al-Kindī, De intellectu ed. A. Nagy 05-al-Kindī, De mutatione temporum ed. G. Bos / C. Burnett 06-al-Kindī, De radiis ed. M.-T. d’Alverny / F. Hudry 07-al-Fārābī, De intellectu et intellecto ed. E. Gilson 08-al-Fārābī, Liber exercitationis ad viam felicitatis ed. D. Salman 09-Ps.-al-Fārābī, Flos (ʿUyūn al-masāʾil) ed. M. Cruz Hernandez 10-al-Fārābī, Explanation ... of the 5th Book of Euclid ed. C. Burnett 11-Ps.-al-Fārābī, De ortu scientiarum ed. C. Baeumker 12-Iḫwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ, In artem logicae demonstrationis ed. A. Nagy 13-Iḫwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ, Cosmographia ed. P. Gautier-Dalché 14-Anonymous, Liber de quatuor confectionibus ed. A. Sannino 15-Isaac Israeli, De definitionibus ed. J.T. Muckle 16-Avicenna, Isagoge, selections from I and II ed. 1508 17-Avicenna, Physics, I-III ed. S. van Riet 1 The paper was written by Dag Nikolaus Hasse. Andreas Büttner contributed significantly by creating a digitalized and fully searchable corpus of the translations, by developing a surface to improve the workflow of the computational analysis with Stylo, and by programming a search tool for analyzing the corpus manually. We are grateful for having received very helpful advice for this paper, especially from Fotis Jannidis and Christof Schöch. Research for this paper was funded by the German Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung as part of the Kallimachos research grant. 2 Hasse, Latin Averroes Translations. 2 18-Avicenna, De diluviis (Meteora II.6) ed. M.A. Alonso 19-al-Ġazālī, prologue to Maqāṣid ed. D. Salman John of Seville 20-Ps.-Aristotle, Secretum secretorum ed. H. Suchier 21-Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, De differentia spiritus et animae ed. J. Wilcox 22-Abū Maʿšar, Great Introduction ed. R. Lemay Hugo of Santalla 23-Ps.-Apollonius, De secretis ed. F. Hudry 24-Liber Aristotilis de 255 Indorum voluminibus ed. C. Burnett / D. Pingree Gerard of Cremona 25-Aristole, Posterior Analytics ed. L. Minio-Paluello 26-Aristotle, Physics mss. 27-Aristotle, De caelo mss. 28-Aristotle, De gen. et corr. mss. 29-Aristotle / Ibn al-Biṭrīq, Meteora I-III ed. P. Schoonheim 30-Ps.-Aristotle, Liber de causis ed. A. Pattin 31-Alexander of Aphrodisias, On Sense ... ed. G. Théry 32-Themistius, Comm. Post. Anal. ed. J.R. O’Donnell 33-al-Kindī, De quinque essentiis ed. A. Nagy 34-al-Kindī, De somno ed. A. Nagy 35-al-Kindī, De ratione ed. A. Nagy 36-al-Fārābī, De scientiis ed. F. Schupp 37-Isaac Israeli, De elementis ed. 1515 38-Isaac Israeli, De definitionibus ed. J.T. Muckle Avendauth and ? 39-Avicenna, prologue / Isagoge ed. A. Birkenmajer Gundisalvi and 40-Avicenna, De anima ed. S. van Riet Avendauth 41-Avicenna, De medicinis cordialibus ed. S. van Riet Gundisalvi and 42-Ibn Gabirol, Fons vitae ed. C. Baeumker Johannes Hispanus 43- al-Ġazālī, Summa (Maqāṣid) ed. C. Lohr / ed. J.T. Muckle Gundisalvi 44-Avicenna, Philosophia prima ed. S. van Riet 45- al-Fārābī, De scientiis ed. M.A. Alonso, repr. Schneider 46-Avicenna, De convenientia ... scientiarum (from ed. L. Baur Post. Anal. of aš-Šifāʾ) 47-Ps.-Avicenna, Liber celi et mundi ed. O. Gutman Alfred of 48-Nicolaus Damascenus, De plantis ed. H. Drossaart / E. Poortman Shareshill 49-Avicenna, De congelatione ... lapidum ed. E. Holmyard / D. Mandeville The table lists 19 anonymous translations and 30 translations by translators known to us. At present state of knowledge, this is the complete corpus of philosophical texts translated from Arabic into Latin in twelfth-century Spain. Note that for numbers 26-28 and 37 I did not have access to a digitally searchable text. Number 22, Abū Maʿšar’s Great Introduction, is not a philosophical text proper. It was added sin order to increase the statistical material for John of Seville, since texts 20 and 21 are rather short. Abū Maʿšar’s text leads to another problem for anyone who studies twelfth-century translations: revision. John of Seville’s version of the Great Introduction was revised, perhaps by Gerard of Cremona, as some have suggested. A related problem is double translation: Al-Fārābī’s Enumeration of the Sciences (De scientiis), texts 36 and 45, was translated both by Gerard of Cremona and Dominicus Gundisalvi. Isaac Israeli’s De definitionibus, texts 15 and 37, was also translated twice, by an anonymous translator and by Gerard. The same is true of al-Kindī’s On the Intellect, texts 4 and 35. In all three cases, verbal parallels between the translations make it likely that one translation in fact is a revision of the other. Even if we stay away from these double translations and focus on the others, there remain enough problems for stylistic analysis. The most troubling question is whether the stylistic signal of the author, i.e. of al-Kindī or al-Fārābī or Avicenna, may turn out to be stronger than the translator signal – whether, for instance, Fārābī translations will group together in Latin, even if the Latin versions stem from different translators. A stylistic identification of the translator would then be impossible. 3 The status quaestionis on anonymous translations in Toledo owes much to Manuel Alonso, who has analysed Dominicus Gundisalvi’s translation style in several papers. In an impressive article of 1955, Alonso compared, on 59 densely written pages, the “coincidencias verbales tipicas” in the works and translations by Gundisalvi, comparing the Arabic and the Latin.3 This article is full of interesting material. For the present purpose it is most relevant that Alonso bases his ascriptions on 34 typical words and phrases: multivocum, astrologia / astronomia, parificare, minus commune, credulitas / credere, solet, in sensibilibus, habens, designare / designatus / designatio, concomitari, maneria, fortassis, materiare, enim, caelatura, si ... aut, intellectus, intentio, vicissitudinantur, quadrivialia, dapsilis, aequidistantia, mediante, anitas, diversificare, appendiciae, propalare, numerus surdus, assolare, hylearis, elongatio, transumere / transumptive, imaginatio, et omnino On this basis, Alonso ascribes nine anonymous translations to Gundisalvi. The other anonymous translations in my list are not discussed by Alonso: Manuel Alonso Alonso: anonymous translations ascribed to Gundisalvi anonymous translation Alonso 01-Aristotle, Metaphysics, Alpha Meizôn, fragm. 02-Alexander of Aphrodisias, De intellectu Gundisalvi 03-Turba philosophorum 04-al-Kindī, De intellectu Gundisalvi 05-al-Kindī, De mutatione temporum 06-al-Kindī, De radiis 07-al-Fārābī, De intellectu et intellecto Gundisalvi 08-al-Fārābī, Liber exercitationis ad viam felicitatis Gundisalvi 09-Ps.-al-Fārābī, Flos (ʿUyūn al-masāʾil) Gundisalvi 10-al-Fārābī, Explanation ... of the 5th Book of Euclid 11-Ps.-al-Fārābī, De ortu scientiarum 12-Iḫwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ, In artem logicae demonstrationis Gundisalvi 13-Iḫwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ, Cosmographia 14-Anonymous, Liber de quatuor confectionibus 15-Isaac Israeli, De definitionibus Gundisalvi 16-Avicenna, Isagoge, selections from I and II Gundisalvi 17-Avicenna, Physics, I-III Gundisalvi 18-Avicenna, De diluviis (Meteora II.6) 19-al-Ġazālī, prologue to Maqāṣid The evidence collected by Alonso is substantial. Whether we are convinced by it, depends on the standards we demand from stylistic analysis. One drawback of Alonso’s studies is that he does not compare Gundisalvi’s style with that of any other translator on the Iberian peninsula. Once you start comparing, the result is disillusioning.
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