A group of Arabic–Latin translators working in northern Spain in the mid-12th century

Extract

In his classic study of the transmission of Arabic science into Latin, which contributed so much to our knowledge of the “Renaissance” of the 12th century, Charles Homer Haskins was the first scholar to bring into clear focus the morass of bibliographical information given by Wüstenfeld and Steinschneider, and he was able to define, on the basis of fresh investigation of the manuscript material, the activity and personalities of individual translators. The bulk of his evidence rested on the translators' prefaces, which give some or all of the following information: the title and author of the Arabic original, the Latin translator, the dedicatee, and other works by the same translator, whether contemplated or already finished. Such information provides a very useful framework for assessing the œuvre of a particular translator. However, the edition and investigation of the texts themselves have yielded a certain amount of new information and, although Haskins's work has by no means been superseded, we are now in a position to clarify certain points and add to his conclusions.