Textual and Intellectual Reception of Arabic Astral Theories in the Twelfth Century

Abstract

The twelfth century witnessed a translation movement that invigorated medieval intellectual culture by making available Arabic scientific and philosophical works containing a ‘new’ perspective on the workings of nature without an overt materialism that sidelines the divine will.1 The earliest texts to be translated were medical and astrological,2 thus epis-temologically making knowable man and the heavens. The revival of Galenic medicine was initiated by Constantine the African (d. c. 1087) who brought from Qairouan an Arabic medical corpus to be translated in Salerno and the Benedictine monastery of Montecassino. It was part of the project in which the most influential medical text in the twelfth century was translated, the Pantegni by Haly Abbas (The Complete Book of Medical Art of ‘Ali ibn al-‘Abbas al-Majusi). A high number of astrological texts were being translated in Spain, especially Toledo. Gerard of Cremona (d. 1178) translated Ptolemy’s Almagest, and John of Seville translated al-Qabisi’s Introduction to Astrology and Abu Ma‘shar’s Great Introduction (1133). He translated many texts on astrology, magic and talismans including Pseudo-Aristotle’s Secretum secretorum (Secret of Secrets), Mash’allah’s De rebus eclipsium (On Eclipses), al-Tabari’s De nativ-itatibus (On Nativities) and Thabit ibn Qurra’s De imaginibus. To John of Seville was attributed the translations of Abu Ma‘shar’s Flores (The Flowers; Kitab tahawil sini al-‘alam) and De magnis conjunctionibus (On the Great Conjunctions; Kitab al-qiranat).