Probably in the twelfth or early in the thirteenth century an alchemical treatise, entitled De anima in arte alchemiae, was translated, in all likelihood directly from Arabic into Latin (Ruska 1934:23-24). The work did not remain unnoticed, maybe because of its (false) attribution to Avicenna: both Vincent of Beauvais and Roger Bacon quoted it. In the Renaissance, it was published at Basel in 1572, although under a different title, that is, Artis chemicae principes, Avicenna atque Geber. Another alchemical treatise, entitled Epistola ad Hasen Regem de re recta, certainly constitutes a direct translation from an Arabic source. However, the attribution to Avicenna is extremely doubtful (Strohmaier 2002:45). The translation dates to before the middle of the thirteenth century, since it is quoted by Vincent of Beauvais. It must be emphasized that alchemy, just as medicine, was considered in the Latin Middle Ages as a conveyer of philosophical ideas (Burnett 2005:384).
To Gundissalinus, in collaboration with John of Spain, is attributed the translation of the Liber celi et mundi, which turns out to be a paraphrase on Aristotle’s De caelo. The style of the translation conforms to that of other Toledan translations of the second half of the twelfth century. Initially transmitted as anonymous, it was later believed to be a genuine Aristotelian work and finally, in all likelihood after 1240, it was attributed to Avicenna (Gutman 2003, XVII-XXI). Under the latter’s name it was included in the Renaissance edition of his Opera philosophica. Also included in this edition is the treatise De causis primis et secundis et defluxu qui consequitur eas, a Latin work written in the first half of the thirteenth century.
World History
