Robert Grosseteste and his work of Greek translation

Abstract

Robert Grosseteste was a scholar of many parts; regarded by contemporaries and later historians alike as the vital figure in the intellectual life of thirteenth-century England, his writings range from the theological and pastoral to philosophical and scientific studies. An important aspect of his scholarship, which provides a link through many of his other fields of study, was his work of translation from Greek texts, and it is with this aspect that this paper will deal. In his early writing Grosseteste’s interest in Greek authors, both classical and patristic is clear; indeed he was almost the first western medieval writer to use Greek sources extensively, but it is equally clear that in his citation of authorities he was not working from original texts, but from collections of quotations or earlier Latin translations. It was no easy matter, however, to acquire a knowledge of Greek in England in the early thirteenth, century; but Grosseteste remedied this situation, learning the language when he was over sixty years old and thus providing a path for others to follow him more easily. He summoned Greek scholars to England, of whom some remained in his household and he collected Greek manuscripts, although this involved sending far afield to Athens or Constantinople, to find and procure them.