Adelard of Bath

Adelard of Bath, also Adelardus Bathonensis, (* 1070, † 1160 ) was an eminent English scholar and translator of the 12th century. It shall Gerhard of Cremona and William of Moerbeke as one of the most important scholars who at that time made known by the Arabic translations of science and through them the ancient times in Europe.

Life

Adelard of Bath was as the name implies probably born in Bath. He studied and taught at Tours in Laon. After that, he spent seven years traveling through Sicily, where he visited along the way, among other things Salerno (before 1116), where at that time an important school for medical doctors were, and from Sicily to Asia Minor ( Cilicia, Syria and Antioch ), possibly he also visited Palestine, perhaps Jerusalem and probably Spain. His knowledge of Arabic and the Arabic science he may have acquired both in Sicily and Salerno as well as in Spain. 1130 he is again detectable in Bath. He dedicated a book on the astrolabe a Henry, registered nepos ( Henry II ), which can be dated 1142-1146 and thus shows his connection to the royal court.

He translated many important Arabic scientific works into Latin, among which were many ancient Greek texts that were available only in Arabic translation. He also translated from the Greek.

Among the works translated by him included, among other things, Euclid's Elements, the first translation into Latin of the incomplete translation of Boethius (from the Greek ) apart. He translated from Arabic, perhaps the version of Al- Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn Matar. With his name three versions are connected, Adelard I, II, III called. They differ greatly, I is an almost complete translation, in II the evidence is replaced by instructions, III is more of a comment. The attribution of Adelard III is controversial; the manuscript was created before 1200 and became known as Adelards name. It was quoted as used by Roger Bacon. Adelard I was later used by Campanus of Novara for its output.

Adelard also translated Al- Chwarizmis astronomical work Zij al - Sindhind in which it is astronomical tables. The translation is usually dated to 1126, after a date specified in the text.

Another work that is often attributed to him is Liber ysagogarum Alchorismi in artem astronomicam a magistro A. (where he is identified with the Magister A. ). The compilation draws from a variety of sources: the astronomical parts of the Arab- Hebrew, the geometry part of the ancient Latin sources. It deals with arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, whereby the decimal is treated. Thus the book is one of the earliest traditional treatments of the Hindu-Arabic decimal system in the Latin Western Europe. There is a manuscript in Cambridge an older Latin (before 1143 ) translation of al - Khwarizmi 's De numero indorum that he may know.

He also translated two astrological works from Arabic, is one of Albumasar ( Ysagoga minor Japharis matematici in astronomicam by Adhelardum bathoniensem ex arabico sumpta ), Thabit ibn Qurra of another ( Liber Prestigiorum Thebidis secundum Ptolomeum et Hermetem by Adelardum bathoniensem Translatus ).

He also wrote a book about birds (especially hawks ) and two philosophical works. De Same date diverso is dedicated to the Bishop Wilhelm of Syracuse and, since it still does not show Arabic influence, but Platonic and Aristotelian influences seeks to connect, dated before 1116 or the time when he began to deal with Arabic science in southern Italy. The second book Quaestiones naturales has the form of a dialogue with his nephew and treats a wide variety of subjects from physics and meteorology to psychology, botany and zoology. It is not completely preserved. The work shows traces of Arabic influence, but does not cite any Arab authors directly. For example, he describes a similar pipette, which was known in the 12th century from Arabic translations of ancient sources such as Heron of Alexandria, an instrument with a function. There is a clear tendency in this work more on observation of nature to put instead on the authority of tradition or supernatural explanations. Also a book Mappae clavicle about chemistry is attributed to him, but is probably older.

According to F. Bliemetzrieder he later made another visit to Sicily or southern Italy, in which he translated in 1160 the Almagest of Claudius Ptolemy from Greek, but has this view not enforced due to inadequate evidence base.

Works

  • Charles Burnett (Editor): Adelard of Bath, Conversations with his nephew. On the Same and the Different, questions on Natural Science and On Birds, Cambridge University Press, 1998 ( Latin text, translation and commentary by De et diverso Same date, De avibus tractatus, Questiones naturales )
  • Liber ysagorum Alchorismi: Maximilian Curtze (Editor), Essays on the History of Mathematics, Issue 8, 1898, pp. 1-27 ( part ) partly also in A. Allard Muhammad ibn Musa al - Khwarizmi. Le calcul indien ( Algorismus ): histoire des textes, édition critique, traduction et commentaire of plus anciennes versions latines remaniée you XIIe siècle, Paris, 1992 Namur
  • Completely in BG Dickey Adelard of Bath, PhD thesis, University of Toronto 1982
29681
de