Toledo School of Translators

• 1. Introduction

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  The Toledo School of Translators is the name for two centuries of scholars who gathered in Toledo to translate Islamic philosophy and science. They moved these works out of Classical Arabic, first into Medieval Latin and later into Old Spanish. In 1167, one of these scholars, Gerard of Cremona, traveled to Toledo chasing a single text. He wanted Ptolemy's Almagest, a Greek work on astronomy he could not yet read in its original language. That search turned into one of the most productive careers the school would produce. It also points toward the larger story this documentary follows. What turned a city recently reconquered from Muslim rule into Europe's gateway for lost classical knowledge? Who were the archbishop's original circle of translators, and how did the king who followed him change their methods? And why did abandoning Latin end up reshaping the Spanish language itself?

• 2. A City Already Fluent

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  Under Umayyad dynasty rule, from 711 to 1031, Al-Andalus became a magnet for scholars, and Toledo inherited that multicultural richness. As the Arabic-speaking rulers who arrived in 711 mixed with local populations, Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and the region's Romance vernacular all lived side by side. This mix produced new pidgin languages, bilingual song forms, and fresh bodies of literature written in both Arabic and Hebrew. European scholars were already traveling to study in the region by the end of the tenth century. They came for a body of classical learning that was inaccessible in the Christian west. During the Islamic Golden Age, Arabic translators in the east had already rendered works by thinkers from the Neoplatonist school into Arabic. That group included Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, and Ptolemy. Ancient philosophy and science from Persia, India, and China had entered that same Arabic canon. Eastern scholars such as Ibn Sina, al-Kindi, and al-Razi added their own major works to it. Some of that Arabic literature was in turn translated into Latin, Hebrew, and Ladino, including work by the Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides, the Muslim sociologist-historian Ibn Khaldun, the Carthage-born Constantine the African, and the Persian scholar Al-Khwarizmi. A growing community of Arabic-speaking Christians, known as Mozarabs, would later supply many of the translators Toledo needed.

  Toledo itself was reconquered by Christian forces in 1085, and only then did organized translation work begin in earnest. The city's new rulers took control of libraries built up over centuries. Those libraries held some of the most advanced scientific and philosophical writing of the ancient and Islamic worlds, nearly all of it in Arabic.

  Between 1210 and 1277, the Condemnations issued at the University of Paris restricted teaching of several theological works. Among the texts banned were Aristotle's physical treatises and the writings of Averroes, the Latinized name for the Muslim philosopher-physician Ibn Rushd of al-Andalus. The Condemnations show how contested this same body of knowledge still was elsewhere in Europe, even as, in Toledo, that same knowledge was about to find a much friendlier home.

• 3. Raymond's Cathedral Workshop

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  Raymond of Toledo served as Archbishop of Toledo from 1126 to 1151, and it was he who launched the school's first translation efforts. He worked out of the library at the Cathedral of Toledo, leading a team that mixed Mozarabic Toledans, Jewish scholars, teachers from local madrasahs, and monks from the Order of Cluny. Most of what they produced moved from Arabic, Hebrew, or Greek into Latin. Raymond considered several Arabic and Hebrew philosophical texts essential for understanding classical authors, Aristotle above all. The team's work made those texts available to Latin readers for the first time. Once refitted under his orders, the cathedral library grew into a translation center whose scale had no match anywhere else in western cultural history.

  Gerard of Cremona proved the most productive translator to work in Toledo, eventually completing more than 87 books of Arabic science. When he arrived, he still could not read Arabic, so he leaned on local Jews and Mozarabs to teach him and translate alongside him. He eventually found and finished his original target, Ptolemy's Almagest, then kept working. From Aristotle, he rendered the Posterior Analytics, the Physics, On the Heavens and the World, On Generation and Corruption, Meteorology, and the Nicomachean Ethics. He also translated al-Khwarizmi's On Algebra and Almucabala, Archimedes' On the Measurement of the Circle, and Euclid's Elements of Geometry. From the world of astronomy came Jabir ibn Aflah's Elementa astronomica, al-Kindi's On Optics, and al-Farghani's On the Elements of Astronomy on the Celestial Motions. He translated al-Farabi's On the Classification of the Sciences, along with chemical and medical works by al-Razi, known in Latin as Rhazes. Thabit ibn Qurra and Hunayn ibn Ishaq rounded out his scientific translations.

  Gerard also edited the Toledan Tables for Latin readers, the most accurate set of astronomical data seen in Europe at the time. The tables drew partly on the work of al-Zarqali, Jabir ibn Aflah, the Banu Musa brothers, Abu Kamil, Abu al-Qasim, and Ibn al-Haytham.

  On medicine, Gerard translated Haly Abenrudian's Expositio ad Tegni Galeni. He also translated works by Yuhanna ibn Sarabiyun, known as Serapion, including the Practica and Brevarium medicine. From Alkindus, he translated De Gradibus. From Rhazes he translated the Liber ad Almansorem, the Liber divisionum, and the Introductio in medicinam. He added Rhazes' De egritudinibus iuncturarum, the Antidotarium, and the Practica puerorum. He also rendered Isaac Israeli ben Solomon's De elementis and De definitionibus. Abulcasis's Al-Tasrif became the Chirurgia in his hands, and Avicenna's Canon of Medicine became the Liber Canonis. He finished with Ibn Wafid's Liber de medicamentis simplicus, also known as Abenguefit's work.

  Gerard was only one member of Raymond's team; several colleagues in that same circle left their own mark on the school's early years.

• 4. Beyond Raymond's Inner Circle

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  John of Seville worked alongside Dominicus Gundissalinus in the school's early days, and together they served as the main translators from Arabic into Castilian. He translated the Secretum Secretorum, a 10th-century Arabic encyclopedic treatise covering statecraft, ethics, physiognomy, astrology, alchemy, and magic. The work became highly influential across Europe during the High Middle Ages. He also translated numerous astrology treatises, from writers including al-Fargani, Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi, al-Kindi, Ahmad ibn Yusuf, al-Battani, Thabit ibn Qurra, and al-Qabisi. In philosophy, he produced Latin versions of Ibn Sina, known as Avicenna, and of Costa ben Luca's De differentia spiritus et animae. He did the same for Al-Farabi, for Ibn Gabirol, known as Avicebron, and for Al-Ghazali. He is remembered for intelligent syntheses that blended source material with his own observations, particularly in astrology.

  Rudolf of Bruges, a Flemish astronomer, studied under Hermann of Carinthia before working as a translator himself. He rendered into Latin the Liber de compositione astrolabii, a major Islamic work on the astrolabe by Maslamah Ibn Ahmad al-Majriti. He dedicated the translation to his colleague John of Seville.

  Dominicus Gundissalinus became the school's first appointed director in 1180. At first he could only translate from Greek into Latin or Castilian, since his Arabic was not yet strong enough. He depended on John of Seville for anything written in Arabic. Later in his career he mastered Arabic well enough to translate it alone. Unlike his colleagues, Gundissalinus worked exclusively in philosophy, translating both Greek and Arabic texts along with commentaries by earlier Muslim philosophers of the peninsula. Among his major translations was the Fons Vitae, or Meqor Hahayim, by the Jewish philosopher ibn Gabirol. For a time it was mistakenly credited to the Christian scholastic Avicebron. Gundissalinus also translated works by the Muslim philosophers Avicenna and al-Ghazali. He was known for cutting passages freely and adding his own commentary, rather than staying strictly faithful to the originals.

  Michael Scot was a Scotsman who studied at Oxford and in Paris before settling in Toledo to work as a translator. He translated Aristotle's writing on homocentric spheres, De verificatione motuum coelestium, a text Roger Bacon later drew on. He also translated Historia animalium, a 19-book work, completing it on the 21st of October, 1220. In 1217 he translated works by al-Betrugi, known as Alpetragius, including On the Motions of the Heavens. He also rendered Averroes' influential commentaries on Aristotle's scientific works.

  Herman the German served as bishop of Astorga from 1266 to 1272 and was a personal friend of Manfred of Sicily. His birthplace is unknown, though he was already a significant figure in Castile's intellectual life before his appointment as bishop. He is credited with translating Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics in 1240, along with Averroes' Rhetoricoric and Alfarabi's commentaries on Aristotle's Rhetoric. He also wrote his own philosophical commentary and summary of the Nicomachean Ethics. None of these translators worked in a vacuum forever; within a few generations, a new patron with a very different vision would reshape how the school operated.

• 5. Between Two Schools

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  In the decades after Raymond's death, translating activity in Toledo slowed considerably, though it never fully stopped. It continued into the next century and overlapped with the school King Alfonso would later establish. At least one translator, Hermannus Alemannus, worked across both periods, and during the second one he translated the Old Testament. This transitional stretch also produced the first direct translations made straight from Arabic into vernacular Castilian.

  Mark of Toledo, a Spanish physician and Canon of Toledo, translated the Qur'an into Latin during this period. He also translated medical works, including Hunayn ibn Ishaq's Liber isagogarum and Hippocrates' De aere aquis locis. Through Hunayn Ibn Ishaq's versions, he rendered four treatises by Galen: De tactu pulsus, De utilitate pulsus, Se motu membrorum, and De motibus liquidis. He translated Hunayn Ibn Ishaq's Isagoge ad Tegni Galieni, a series of Muslim religious treatises dated to 1213, and a Greek treatise on biology.

  Alfred of Sareshel was an English translator and philosopher who lived in Spain toward the end of the 12th century. Historical records list him under several other names too, including Alvred Alphitus and Alphredus Anglicus. He translated the pseudo-Aristotelian De plantis, along with a section on alchemy, Avicennae Mineralia, drawn from Ibn Sina's Sifa.

  John of Toledo studied medicine at the school before returning to England, where he was ordained a cardinal. He later moved to Rome and became personal physician to the Pope. He is believed to have translated several Latin medical treatises focused on practical medicine.

  Hermannus Alemannus worked in Toledo between 1240 and 1256. He then served Manfred in Naples from 1258 to 1266, before returning to Spain and becoming a naturalized citizen of Castile. He translated most of Aristotle's Rhetoric, weaving in portions of Averroes' middle commentary and short fragments from Avicenna and Alfarabi. He also translated Aristotle's Aethica Nichomachea and a middle commentary on the Poetics. He finished Averroes' Commentario Medio y Poetica on Aristotle's Rhetoric, and turned the Psalterio from Hebrew into Castilian. From Arabic he also produced a Castilian epitome of the Ethics known as the Summa Alexandrinorum. This same translator, straddling both eras, would soon be working under a king who cared less about Latin than about being understood.

• 6. A King Changes The Rules

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  Under Alfonso X of Castile, known as the Wise, Toledo climbed to an even higher standing as a translation center. It also became a place for writing original scholarly works. The Crown never officially recognized the school, but its scholars and translators shared knowledge freely and taught newcomers both languages and methods. Several people were often involved in producing a single translation. The Castilian Crown paid for most of this work, and it sometimes hired the most capable translators from elsewhere in Spain and Europe.

  Alfonso chose to abandon Latin as the target language altogether, replacing it with a revised, standardized form of Castilian. That single decision carried enormous weight for the early development of the Spanish language. He insisted the translated texts be, in his words, llanos de entender, easy to understand. That way, they could reach a far wider audience, both in Spain and across Europe. Scholars from Italy, Germany, England, and the Netherlands moved to Toledo to translate medical, religious, classical, and philosophical texts. Many then carried that classical Arabic, Greek, and Hebrew learning home with them when they returned. Alfonso also commissioned Castilian translations of several eastern fables that, though written in Arabic, had originally come from Sanskrit. Among them were the Kalila wa-Dimna, also called the Panchatantra, and the Sendebar.

  The method of translation itself changed under Alfonso's direction. Previously, a native speaker recited a book's contents aloud, a scholar rendered that into spoken Latin, and a scribe wrote the Latin down. Under the new method, one translator fluent in several languages dictated straight from the base language into spoken Castilian for the scribe. Editors, sometimes including the King himself, then reviewed the scribe's work. Alfonso had a personal interest in science, history, law, and literature, and he managed and selected translators while encouraging open intellectual debate. The King did not carry out this work alone, and the scholars around him were about to put their own names on the historical record.

• 7. The King's Scholars

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  Sephardic Jewish scientists and translators took on a prominent role at Alfonso's court, valued above all for their mastery of both Arabic and Castilian. The King kept several of them as his personal physicians and rewarded their service with notable favors and praise. His nephew, Juan Manuel, wrote that Alfonso was struck by the intellect of these Jewish scholars. That admiration led him to commission a translation of the Talmud, the law of the Jews, and of the Kabbalah. He apparently hoped to show that these texts reflected Christian doctrine, and that Jews endangered their souls by not recognizing it. Those translations have since been lost, though they may connect to the later Christian Kabbalah tradition.

  The period's first known translation was the Lapidario, a book on the medical properties of rocks and gems. Yehuda ben Moshe Cohen produced it with help from Garci Pérez, back when Alfonso was still an infante, not yet king. Alfonso had obtained the book from a Jew who had kept it hidden, then ordered Yehuda to translate it from Arabic into Castilian.

  Yehuda ben Moshe became one of the period's most notable Jewish translators. He also served as the King's physician, a role he held even before Alfonso's coronation. Among his major works were the Picatrix, a composite of ancient treatises on magic and astrology, and the Tratado de la açafeha. That last work had been translated into Latin from an Arabic text by Al-Zarqali, with help from Guillelmus Anglicus. He also produced the Tetrabiblon, or Quatriparito, of Ptolemy, containing fifteen treatises on astrology. Those treatises covered the effects of stars on people and the properties of 360 stones believed to ward off negative astral influences. He also translated the Los IIII libros de las estrellas de la ochaua espera. King Alfonso later had it revised by Samuel ha-Levi, Joan de Mesina, and Joan de Cremona. Yehuda also worked on the Libro conplido en los iudizios de las estrellas, a text with an unusual path. It had originally been Latin, used among the Visigoths, before being rendered into Arabic and then translated back into Castilian and Latin.

  Yehuda also collaborated on the Libro de las cruces and the Libros del saber de Astronomía. His biggest contribution came through the Alfonsine tables, compiled by Isaac ibn Sid. The tables supplied data for computing the positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets against the fixed stars. That data came from observations by astronomers Alfonso had gathered in Toledo, among them Aben Raghel y Alquibicio and Aben Musio y Mohamat from Seville. Joseph Aben Alí and Jacobo Abenvena came from Córdoba, and fifty more astronomers were lured from Gascony and Paris with large salaries. That same team was assigned to translate Ptolemy's Quadripartitum and to gather books by Montesan and Algazel. The finished Alfonsine tables became the most popular astronomical tables in Europe, with updated versions reprinted regularly for more than three hundred years.

  Juan D'Aspa assisted Yehuda in the literal translation of the Libro de la alcora and the Libro de las cruzes. Guillén Arremon D'Aspa collaborated with Yehuda on the IIII libros de las estrellas de la ochaua espera. Isaac ibn Sid himself was another translator the King favored, learned in astronomy, astrology, architecture, and mathematics. At Alfonso's direction, Isaac made the Libro de las armellas simple enough that, as the King put it, any man could readily use it. He also translated the Libro del astrolabio redondo and the Libro del ataçir, a manual on the flat astrolabe used by astrologers for rapid calculations. King Alfonso wrote the preface to Isaac's translation, Lamina Universal, noting that Arzarquiel had built his açafea from the original Arabic work done in Toledo. Isaac contributed four works on clock-building to the Libro de quadrante pora rectificar, including the Libro del relogio dell argen uiuo. One of those, the Libro del relogio del palacio de las oras, laid out a palace whose windows tracked the time onto an inner patio. He is also credited with translating the Astrolabio redondo, the Astrolabio llano, and the Constelaciones. He added the Lámina Universal, an instrument that improved on the astrolabe itself. He also contributed to translations covering the Armellas de Ptolemy, the Piedra de la sombra, or sundial, and the Relox de agua, a water clock. Rounding these out were the Argente vivo o azogue, on quicksilver, and the Candela, a candle clock.

  Abraham of Toledo served as physician to both Alfonso and his son Sancho, and translated books from Arabic into Spanish. Those included Al-Heitham's treatise on the construction of the universe and al-Zarqali's work on the Astrolabe. Other translators of the period included Samuel ha-Levi, who translated the Libro del saber. Abulafia de Toledo worked as an author, compiler, and translator, alongside Abraham Alfaqui, Hayyim Israel, and Judah Cohen. Maestre Bernardo, a convert from Islam, assisted Abraham Alfaqui in revising the Libro de la açafeha, first translated by Maestre Ferrando de Toledo's team.

  Among the Christian translators, Alvaro de Oviedo turned the Libro Conplido, also called De judiciis Astrologiae, into Latin. Alvaro produced the Latin text while Yehuda ben Moshe gave him an oral Castilian translation of the same Arabic treatise by Aben Ragel. It stands as the only documented case of a double, simultaneous translation in the school's history. The Italian translator Edigio de Tebladis de Parma worked with Pietro de Reggio to render Ptolemy's Quatripartito into Latin. They also translated Yehuda's Castilian version of Ibn Aben Ragel's Liber de Judiciis Astrologiae. Maestre Joan de Cremona, the King's notary, translated parts of the Libro de las estrellas fixas. He also worked with Yehuda, Samuel ha-Levi, and the Italian Juan de Mesina on the IIII Libros. Another royal notary and scribe, Bonaventura of Siena, translated Abraham's Castilian version of the Escala de Mohama into French, as the Livre de leschiele Mahomet.

  After Alfonso died, his self-appointed successor, Sancho IV of Castile, dismantled most of the translation team. Most of its members soon moved on to other work under new patrons, and many left Toledo altogether. The translators scattered, but their finished volumes were already leaving Toledo in the hands of scholars bound for the rest of Europe.

• 8. A Legacy Beyond Toledo

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  Toledo's translations on astronomy, astrology, algebra, and medicine acted like a magnet for scholars across Europe. They came eager to reach material that had been out of view for centuries. Through this group's work, knowledge drawn from Arabic, Greek, and Hebrew texts made its way into the heart of Europe's universities. The University of Paris banned the works of Aristotle and Arab philosophers in the early 1200s. Toledo's translations were accepted elsewhere, thanks to their physical and cosmological subject matter.

  Albertus Magnus built his systematic account of Aristotelian philosophy directly on translations made in Toledo. He drew on that same body of work for his writing on astronomy, astrology, mineralogy, chemistry, zoology, physiology, and phrenology. His pupil, Thomas Aquinas, likewise used much of that translated material to bring Aristotle into his own philosophical and theological writing.

  Roger Bacon leaned on many of these Arabic translations to make his own contributions to optics, astronomy, natural science, chemistry, and mathematics. Renaissance scholars widely used the translation of ibn al-Haytham's Kitab al-manazir, the most important optical treatise of the ancient and medieval world. Medicine benefited broadly too, since so many translated works reflected the advanced state of medicine across medieval Islam and parts of Asia.

  Nicolaus Copernicus was the first scientist to formulate a full heliocentric cosmology, placing the sun rather than the earth at the center of the universe. He studied the Toledo translation of Ptolemy's Almagest. He also drew on the astronomical computing data in the Alfonsine tables, owning his own copy after they were published in Venice in 1515. Another translated work, the Theorica planetarum, served as an introductory astronomy text for European students all through the 15th century.

  The translation effort also pushed forward a revised Castilian, one that absorbed a great deal of new scientific and technical vocabulary. At the same time, its syntax was streamlined so ordinary people could understand it, while still serving the highest expressions of thought. That same revised Castilian, shaped through the oral and written work of scholars under Alfonso X, became the foundation later generations would call the modern supranational Spanish language.