THE DIFFUSION OF SCIENCE
Provençal Translators.--The Ibn Tibbons.--Italian
Translators.--Jacob Anatoli.--Kalonymos.--Scientific
Literature.
Translators act as mediators between various peoples and ages. They
bring the books and ideas of one form of civilization to the minds and
hearts of another. In the Middle Ages translations were of more
importance than now, since fewer educated people could read foreign
languages.
No men of letters were more active than the Jews in this work of
diffusion. Dr. Steinschneider fills 1100 large pages with an account of
the translations made by Jews in the Middle Ages. Jews co-operated with
Mohammedans in making translations from the Greek, as later on they
were associated with Christians in making Latin translations of the
masterpieces of Greek literature. Most of the Jewish translations,
however, that influenced Europe were made from the Arabic into the
Hebrew. But though the language of these translations was mostly Hebrew,
they were serviceable to others besides Jews. For the Hebrew versions
were often only a stage in a longer journey. Sometimes by Jews directly,
sometimes by Christian scholars acting in conjunction with Jews, these
Hebrew versions were turned into Latin, which most scholars understood,
and from the Latin further translations were made into the every-day
languages of Europe.
The works so translated were chiefly the scientific and philosophical
masterpieces of the Greeks and Arabs. Poetry and history were less
frequently the subject of translation, but, as will be seen later on,
the spread of the fables of Greece and of the folk-tales of India owed
something to Hebrew translators and editors.
Provence was a meeting-place for Arab science and Jewish learning in the
Middle Ages, and it was there that the translating impulse of the Jews
first showed itself strongly. By the beginning of the thirteenth
century, Hebrew translation had become an art. True, these Hebrew
versions possess no graces of style, but they rank among the best of
their class for fidelity to their originals. Jewish patrons encouraged
the translators by material and moral support. Thus, Meshullam of Lunel
(twelfth century) was both learned and wealthy, and his eager
encouragement of Judah Ibn Tibbon, "the father of Jewish translators,"
gave a strong impetus to the translating activity of the Jews.
Judah Ibn Tibbon (about 1120-1190) was of Spanish origin, but he
emigrated from Granada to Provence during the same persecution that
drove Maimonides from his native land. Judah settled in Lunel, and his
skill as a physician won him such renown that his medical services were
sought by knights and bishops even from across the sea. Judah Ibn Tibbon
was a student of science and philosophy. He early qualified himself as a
translator by careful attention to philological niceties. Under the
inspiration of Meshullam, he spent the years 1161 to 1186 in making a
series of translations from Arabic into Hebrew. His translations were
difficult and forced in style, but he had no ready-made language at his
command. He had to create a new Hebrew. Classical Hebrew was naturally
destitute of the technical terms of philosophy, and Ibn Tibbon invented
expressions modelled on the Greek and the Arabic. He made Hebrew once
more a living language by extending its vocabulary and adapting its
idioms to the requirements of medieval culture.
His son Samuel (1160-1230) and his grandson Moses continued the line of
faithful but inelegant translators. Judah had turned into Hebrew the
works of Bachya, Ibn Gebirol, Jehuda Halevi, Ibn Janach, and Saadiah.
Samuel was the translator of Maimonides, and bore a brave part in the
defence of his master in the bitter controversies which arose as to the
lawfulness and profit of studying philosophy. The translations of the
Tibbon family were in the first instance intended for Jewish readers
only, but later on the Tibbonite versions were turned into Latin by
Buxtorf and others. Another Latin translation of Maimonides existed as
early as the thirteenth century.
Of the successors of the Tibbons, Jacob Anatoli (1238) was the first to
translate any portion of Averroes into any language. Averroes was an
Arab thinker of supreme importance in the Middle Ages, for through his
writings Europe was acquainted with Aristotle. Renan asserts that all
the early students of Averroes were Jews. Anatoli, a son-in-law of
Samuel Ibn Tibbon, was invited by Emperor Frederick II to leave Provence
and settle in Naples. To allow Anatoli full leisure for making
translations, Frederick granted him an annual income. Anatoli was a
friend of the Christian Michael Scot, and the latter made Latin
renderings from the former's Hebrew translations. In this way Christian
Europe was made familiar with Aristotle as interpreted by Averroes (Ibn
Roshd). Much later, the Jew Abraham de Balmes (1523) translated Averroes
directly from Arabic into Latin. In the early part of the fourteenth
century, Kalonymos, the son of Kalonymos, of Aries (born 1287),
translated various works into Latin.
From the thirteenth century onwards, Jews were industrious translators
of all the important masterpieces of scientific and philosophical
literature. Their zeal included the works of the Greek astronomers and
mathematicians, Ptolemy, Euclid, Archimedes, and many others. Alfonso X
commissioned several Jews to co-operate with the royal secretaries in
making new renderings of older Arabic works on astronomy. Long before
this, in 959, the monk Nicholas joined the Jew Chasdai in translating
Dioscorides. Most of the Jewish translators were, however, not
Spaniards, but Provençals and Italians. It is to them that we owe the
Hebrew translations of Galen and Hippocrates, on which Latin versions
were based.
The preceding details, mere drops from an ocean of similar facts, show
that the Jews were the mediators between Mohammedan and Christian
learning in the Middle Ages. According to Lecky, "the Jews were the
chief interpreters to Western Europe of Arabian learning." When it is
remembered that Arabian learning for a long time included the Greek, it
will be seen that Lecky ascribes to Jewish translators a role of the
first importance in the history of science. Roger Bacon (1214-1294) had
long before said a similar thing: "Michael Scot claimed the merit of
numerous translations. But it is certain that a Jew labored at them more
than he did. And so with the rest."
In what precedes, nothing has been said of the _original_ contributions
made by Jewish authors to scientific literature. Jews were active in
original research especially in astronomy, medicine, and mathematics.
Many Jewish writers famous as philosophers, Talmudists, or poets, were
also men of science. There are numerous Jewish works on the calendar, on
astronomical instruments and tables, on mathematics, on medicine, and
natural history. Some of their writers share the medieval belief in
astrology and magic. But it is noteworthy that Abraham Ibn Ezra doubted
the common belief in demons, while Maimonides described astrology as
"that error called a science." These subjects, however, are too
technical for fuller treatment in the present book. More will be found
in the works cited below.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
IBN TIBBON FAMILY.
Graetz.--III, p. 397 [409].
JACOB ANATOLI.
Graetz.--III, p. 566 [584].
Karpeles.--_Sketch of Jewish History_ (Jewish Publication Society
of America, 1897), pp. 49, 57.
JEWISH TRANSLATORS.
Steinschneider, _Jewish Literature_, p. 62 _seq._
SCIENCE AND MEDICINE.
Steinschneider.--_Ibid._, pp. 179 _seq._, 260 _seq._
Also, A. Friedenwald.--_Jewish Physicians and the Contributions of
the Jews to the Science of Medicine_ (_Publications of the
Gratz College_, Vol. I).