James of Venice

James of Venice ( bl. after 1125; † after 1147 ) was a Venetian cleric and canon. He achieved fame primarily for his translations of Aristotle in Latin. He was one of the first, which transferred seven centuries after Boethius works of the philosopher directly from the ancient Greek into Latin.

Biography

About James of Venice, little is known. He called himself Iacobus Veneticus Graecus and dominated beside the Latin nor the Greek means, although it is not known whether he grew up as a Greek in Venice or as Venetians in Constantinople Opel.

When Robert of Torigni, Abbot of Mont Saint -Michel (1154-1186), he appears as " Jacob, clerics from Venice " ( Jacobus clericus de venecia ) on what may "mean that he never an important position in the Church hierarchy had received and that he was probably never ordained. "

He is, together with the lawyer and translator Burgundio of Pisa and the poet and philologist Moses of Bergamo, who participated in the theological debate between the bishop Anselm of Havel mountain and the Orthodox Archbishop Nicetas of Nicomedia, which on April 3, 1136 publicly in the Pisan district was held in Constantinople Opel.

From his time as a canon, a letter has been preserved, in which he granted Moses of Vercelli, the archbishop of Ravenna, a consultancy in precedence over the Archbishop of Milan. The dispute was by Pope Eugene III. settled at the Council of Cremona in 1148.

Translations of Aristotle

Became famous Jakob especially as a major translator of the 12th century of Aristotle from Greek into Latin. Many surviving copies from the 13th century bear the legend translatio Jacobi. Attributed to him are the first Greek-Latin translations of the Physica, the Metaphysica (Book I to Book IV, 4, 1007a31 ) and the De anima. The translation of parts of the Parva naturalia is it also assigned (in particular the translatio vetus of De morte et vita, the De memoria, De juventute and the De respiratione ), just as the new text versions of previously translated by Boethius Topica, De sophisticis elenchis ( fragments), Analytica priora and posteriora ( the translations of the latter are widespread throughout the middle Ages: 275 known manuscripts come from him, whereas only eight of the three other known translators ). His name also fragments of a commentary on the elenchis and Analytica posteriora be related.

A preface to the Latin translation of the Analytica posteriora from the mid-12th century can be seen that the translations of James of Venice the so-called " champions of France " (possibly from Chartres and Paris ) were known at that time and gladly used by these were, even though they " covered with darkness " were supposed to. Even John of Salisbury (1115-1180) knew the last Translations of James of Venice. He took up the translation of the Analytica posteriora back in his work Metalogicon ( 1159 ). In a letter to Richard, the archdeacon of Coutances, he asked him, ' to make copies of the works of Aristotle, which he had in his possession. To this end, he demanded explanations of places where the text was difficult to read because he did not trust the translations of Jacob. In fact, it seems today that Jacob of Venice with regard to certain grammatical rules of ancient Greek and in the field of Greek mythology had some knowledge gaps. There are also difficulties that his translation style was very literally and very close to the Greek syntax kept: if a word had no exact correspondence in Latin, he took it easy and introduced a new definition. In this way, the philosophical vocabulary was expanded to include many new technical terms.

The role of the abbey of Mont Saint -Michel in the dissemination of translations of James of Venice

The abbot of Mont -Saint -Michel Robert of Torigni (1110-1186) reported in an addendum a copy of his chronicle, that Jacob of Venice is said to have been translating 1128-1129. The entry comes either directly from him or one of his writers. The copy was made after his Abtwahl 1154 and before 1169. When and where did Robert of Torigni referring this information is not known. One hypothesis Coloman Viola According to he got it from French theologian ( " the French champions " ), who were with the translations may already be familiar with. Consideration would be because, for example, Archdeacon Richard de Coutances, who was even in contact with John of Salisbury. Or he got it at the Council of Tours in 1163, at the time when Jacob of Venice was already known in papal circles.

For a discussion is also whether the spot where Robert of Torigni the addendum to his chronicle has inserted ( 1128-1129 ), actually corresponds to the date on which Jacob of Venice his translations anfertigte (or at least a part of this ). Lorenzo Minio - Paluello is of the opinion that this post was simply the next best free gap in the manuscript. Coloman Viola contrast, refers to a similar supplement, which is found in a translation of John of Damascus by Pope Eugenius and his date turned out to be correct, and believes that this could be the case for James of Venice.

The collection of the library of Mont Saint -Michel (now Scriptorial d' Avranches ) has two manuscripts which contain the oldest known copies of the majority Jacob of Venice attributed translations. The first manuscript ( Ms. 221) was copied in the scriptorium of Mont Saint- Michel, the other ( Ms. 232 ) in the north of France. Both are dated to the second half of the 12th century, ie in the time of Robert of Torigni who has as it seems played a " leading role in the dissemination of new Aristotelian literature."

Jacob of Venice and it creates Aristotle translations play a central role in the book of Aristotle at Mont Saint -Michel (2008 ) of the medievalists Sylvain Gouguenheim along with other anonymous authors of Mont Saint -Michel. Gouguenheim presented the role of Muslims and Arabs in the transmission of ancient Greek texts and Sciences in the Latin West in question. The publication had triggered in the French media a fierce controversy, which dealt with within the framework of the "clash of civilizations" to the " Christian roots of the West". The publication has been strongly criticized by various medievalists. For the reasons advanced by Gouguenheim allegations, namely, that Jacob of Venice Mont Saint -Michel visited or the local translations anfertigte (some manuscripts that Gougenheim Jacob zuwies of Venice, are in fact copies that come from Burgundio from Pisa), there is no scientific evidence.