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Twelfth-Century Latin Translations of Arabic Philosophical Texts on the Iberian Peninsula D.N

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Twelfth-Century Latin Translations of Arabic Philosophical Texts on the Iberian Peninsula D.N D.N. Hasse 1 Twelfth-Century Latin Translations of Arabic Philosophical Texts on the Iberian Peninsula D.N. Hasse, Villa Vigoni, 27 June 2013 Translators count among the most influential producers of texts in ancient and medieval cultures. Their linguistic skills, their learning and diligence, and their open-mindedness towards the foreign, have left enormous traces in intellectual history. For some well-known translators, such as Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq in Baghdad or Gerard of Cremona in Toledo, this is long known to specialists. With his over 70 Latin translations from Arabic, among them Ptolemy’s Almagest and Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine, Gerard of Cremona composed more Latin text than most other authors of medieval Latin prose. Medieval university culture would have looked entirely different without Gerard’s efforts. But in spite of all this, the translators of ancient and medieval times have not yet received the place they deserve in historiography. One way to change this, is to lift the anonymity of translations. We thus come closer to understanding the intellectual profiles, motives and techniques of these great mediators between cultures. In a paper published in 2010, I have studied the anonymous Latin translations of Averroes of the thirteenth century. Among the 17 Averroes translations, twelve were anonymous. The idea was not to examine the technical vocabulary, but the translator’s usage of particles and short phrases. The statistical analysis of particle usage showed that six anonymous translations, and probably a seventh, were by Michael Scot, three by William of Luna, one by Hermannus Alemannus and one by an unknown fourth translator. In the present paper, I should like to try something similar for the twelfth century: for the great Arabic-Latin translation movement in Spain. Here too we have many anonymous translations. But the textual situation is more complicated: the translation movement in Spain is much larger, and the number of anonymous translations is much higher. Also, there are many Arabic authors involved, not only Averroes. Some anonymous translations, for instance of texts by al-Kindī, are very short. To keep the size manageable and the corpus coherent, I decided to concentrate on philosophical texts, as you can see on the table below – thus excluding 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 D.N. Hasse 2 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-Iḫwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ, 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 18-Avicenna, De diluviis (Meteora II.6) ed. M.A. Alonso 19-al- az l , prologue to Maqāṣid ed. D. Salman Ġ ā ī John of Seville 20-Ps.-Aristotle, Secretum secretorum ed. H. Suchier 21-Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, De differentia spiritus et animae ed. J. Wilcox 22-Ab Maʿšar, Great Introduction ed. R. Lemay Hugo of Santalla 23-Ps.-Apollonius, De secretis ed. F. Hudry 24-Liberū 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- az l , Summa (Maqāṣid) ed. C. Lohr / ed. J.T. Muckle Gundisalvi 44-Avicenna, Philosophia prima ed. S. van Riet 45- al-FārāĠ ābīī, 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, plus 30 translations by translators known to us. Number 22 (Abū Maʿšar) is not a philosophical text in the stricter sense; I have added it in order to have enough statistical material for John of Seville, since texts 20 and 21 are rather short. Albumasar’s text leads us 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. Other texts, such as al-Fārābī’s Enumeration of the Sciences (De scientiis) was translated twice, by Gerard of D.N. Hasse 3 Cremona and Gundisalvi (texts 36 and 45). There is no consensus on which translation was first; I believe (as Charles Burnett does) that Gundisalvi revised Gerard’s translation. Isaac’s De definitionibus was also translated twice, by an anonymous translator and by Gerard (texts 15 and 37). The same is true of al- Kindī’s On the Intellect (texts 4 and 35). In all three cases, the 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 any attempt to identify anonymous translators. The troubling question is whether the stylistic signal of the author (i.e. al-Kindī or al-Fārābī or Avicenna) will be stronger than the translator signal – whether, for instance, Fārābī-translations will group together in Latin, even if they are by different translators. And I have to say there was a moment in April of this year when I almost despaired and I thought that I won’t have anything to present at the Villa Vigoni. I will show you why. Fortunately, the story took a different direction. What is the status quaestionis? As I see it, there were two major steps in research on this issue. First, Manuel Alonso’s analysis of Dominicus Gundisalvi’s translation style in two papers of the 1940s and 1950s, on the basis of which Alonso ascribed several anonymous translations to Gundisalvi (or the tandem Gundisalvi / Johannes Hispanus). Second, Charles Burnett’s research on the translators in Spain. To turn to Alonso’s results first: In a magisterial 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. 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 Coincidencias verbales típicas en las obras y traducciones de Gundisalvo, in: Al-Andalus 20 (1955), 129-152, 345-379 D.N. Hasse 4 01-Aristotle, Metaphysics, Alpha Meizôn, fragm. 02-Alexander of Aphrodisias, De intellectu 03-Turba philosophorum 04-al-Kindī, De intellectu 05-al-Kindī, De mutatione temporum 06-al-Kindī, De radiis 07-al-Fārābī, De intellectu et intellecto 08-al-Fārābī, Liber exercitationis ad viam felicitatis 09-Ps.-al-Fārābī, Flos (ʿUyūn al-masāʾil) 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 13-Iḫwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ, Cosmographia 14-Iḫwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ, Liber de quatuor confectionibus 15-Isaac Israeli, De definitionibus 16-Avicenna, Isagoge, selections from I and II 17-Avicenna, Physics, I-III 18-Avicenna, De diluviis (Meteora II.6) 19-al-Ġazālī, prologue to Maqāṣid –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The evidence collected by Alonso is impressive. Whether we are convinced by it, depends on the standards we demand
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