Gerard
of Cremona (Italian: Gherardo da Cremona; Latin: Gerardus Cremonensis;
c. 1114 - 1187), the Italian translator of Arabic scientific works was
most famous as the translator of Ptolemy's Astronomy from Arabic texts found in Toledo.
He
was one of a small group of scholars who invigorated medieval Europe in
the 12th century by transmitting Greek and Arab traditions in
astronomy, medicine and other sciences, in the form of translations into
Latin, which made them available to every literate person in the West.
Gerard
was born in Cremona. Dissatisfied with the meager philosophies of his
Italian teachers, Gherardo followed his true passions and went to
Toledo. There he learned Arabic at a school for translators, initially
so that he could read Ptolemy's Almagest, which retained its
traditional high reputation among scholars, even though no Latin
translation existed. Although we do not have detailed information of the
date when Gerard went to Castile, it was no later than 1144.
Toledo,
which had been a provincial capital in the Caliphate of Cordoba and
remained a seat of learning, was safely available to a Catholic like
Gerard, since it had been conquered from the Moors by Alfonso VI of
Castile. Toledo remained a multicultural capital. Its rulers protected
the large Jewish colony, and kept their trophy city an important centre
of Arab and Hebrew culture, one of the great scholars associated with
Toledo being Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, Gerard's contemporary. The Moorish
and Jewish inhabitants of Toledo adopted the language and many customs
of their conquerors, embodying Mozarabic culture. The city was full of
libraries and manuscripts, the one place in Europe where a Christian
could fully immerse himself in Arabic language and culture.
In Toledo Gerard devoted the remainder of his life to making Latin translations from the Arabic scientific literature.
Gerard of Cremona's Latin translation of an Arabic text was the only version of Ptolemy's Almagest
that was known in Western Europe for centuries, until George of
Trebizond and then Johannes Regiomontanus translated it from the Greek
originals in the fifteenth century. The Almagest formed the basis for a mathematical astronomy until it was eclipsed by the theories of Copernicus.
Gerard edited for Latin readers the Tables of Toledo, the most accurate compilation of astronomical data ever seen in Europe at the time. The Tables
were partly the work of Al-Zarqali, known to the West as Arzachel, a
mathematician and astronomer who flourished in Cordoba in the eleventh
century.
Al-Farabi, the Islamic "second teacher" after Aristotle, wrote hundreds of treatises. His book on the sciences, Kitab al-lhsa al Ulum,
discussed classification and fundamental principles of science in a
unique and useful manner. Gerard rendered it as De scientiis (On the
Sciences).
Gerard translated Euclid's Geometry and Alfraganus's Elements of Astronomy.
Gerard
also composed original treatises on algebra, arithmetic and astrology.
In the astrology text, longitudes are reckoned both from Cremona and
Toledo.
Free Ebooks by Gerard Cremonensis
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