The translation of arabic works on logic into latin in the middle ages and the renaissance

Abstract

In the Middle Ages, and again in the Renaissance, several Arabic texts on logic have been translated into Latin. These included not only works by Arabic philosophers but also texts originally written in Greek—that is, the Organon or corpus on logic by Aristotle on which all Medieval and Renaissance texts have been ultimately based. While one can understand how Latin translations of Arabic works on mathematics, medicine, astrology, and other practical sciences could be useful, it is more difficult to imagine how texts on logic written in, and for, a Semitic language could make much sense in a language that is completely unrelated to it. Aristotelian logic is, of course, very much language based. Moreover, while Latin scholars were lacking scientific texts in mathematics and medicine, they already had good translations and detailed expositions of at least the first half of the Organon made by Boethius in the early sixth century. When they wished to complete the Organon, they were able to do so by translating the texts directly from the Greek.