The Twelfth-Century Renaissance: Translation and Transmission

The 'Twelfth-Century Renaissance' is a convenient historiographical label and, despite re-evaluations, Haskins' vision of this cultural achievement, published in 1927, remains the starting-point for its study. He portrayed a reinvigorated interest in Latin and its ancient classics, the revival of Roman Law, greater sophistication in historical writing and the rise of universities. Above all, because of the repercussions for the philosophical and scientific thought-worlds, he emphasized the translations of texts unavailable to the West for generations.

The pre-eminent centres of translation were in Sicily (including southern Italy) and Spain. In Sicily, various writings were translated directly from the Greek, including Ptolemy's Almagest and works by Euclid and Proclus. With a medical school at Salerno, a demand for medical texts, especially Galen, became prominent. This was met by men like Burgundio of Pisa, a jurist who visited Constantinople several times. Burgundio and other Italians also translated theological works by the Greek Fathers. However, the main impetus was directed at translating ancient

Philosophy, oftentimes with Arabic commentary, and mathematics and astronomy. Translations from Arabic in Spain were principally devoted to these subjects and, most significantly, to recovering Aristotle's works. The place of Toledo as the leading Spanish centre needs qualification—the idea of a 'school' under Archbishop Raymond (1125-52) appears premature—but, from the second half of the century, Toledo undoubtedly attracted scholars of quality, including the enormously productive Gerard of Cremona. Other centres are identifiable: Hugh of Santalla in Tarazona, Plato of Tivoli in Barcelona, Robert of Chester in Segovia. Herman of Carinthia was in Leon in 1142 and in Toulouse and Beziers in 1143, translating as he went.

It is not fully understood how manuscripts of Aristotle and others were transmitted to the West's intellectual centres. Probably, the wandering scholars themselves played a major part in the dissemination. It fell to men like St Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) to systematize the 'new' knowledge and harmonize it to the fundamentals of Christian theology.

R. McCluskey