GERARD OF CREMONA (c. I114-1187)

This article appears in Volume V11, Page 764 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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GERARD OF CREMONA (c. I114-1187) , the medieval translator of

Ptolemy

PTOLEMY (
CLAUDIUS
PTOLEMAEUS)

's Astronomy, was born at Cremona, Lombardy, in or about 1114. Dissatisfied with the meagre philosophies of his Italian teachers, he went to Toledo to study in Spanish Moslem schools, then so famous as depositories and interpreters of ancient wisdom; and, having thus acquired a knowledge of the Arabic language, he appears to have devoted the remainder of his life to the business of making Latin translations from its literature. The date of his return to his native town is uncertain, but he is known to have died there in 1187. His most celebrated

work

WORK

is the Latin version by which alone

Ptolemy

PTOLEMY (
CLAUDIUS
PTOLEMAEUS)

's Almagest was known to Europe until the discovery of the

original

ORIGINAL

MeyaXr7 luv-raEts. In addition to this, he translated various other treatises, to the number, it is said, of sixty-six; among these were the Tables of " Arzakhel," or Al Zarkala of Toledo, Al Farabi On the Sciences (De scientiis), Euclid's Geometry, Al Farghani's Elements of Astronomy, and treatises on algebra, arithmetic and

astrology

ASTROLOGY

. In the last-named latitudes are reckoned from Cremona and Toledo. Some of the works, how-ever, with which he has been credited (including the Theoriaor Theorica planetarum, and the versions of Avicenna's Canon of Medicinethe basis of the numerous subsequent Latin editions of that well-known workand of the Almansorius of Abu Bakr Razi) are probably due to a later Gerard, of the 13th century, also called Cremonensis but more precisely de Sabloneta (Sabbionetta). This writer undertook the task of interpreting to the Latin world some of the best

work

WORK

of Arabic physicians, and his translation of Avicenna is said to have been made by order of the emperor Frederic II.
See' Pipini, Cronica," in

Muratori

MURATORI

, Script. rer. Ital. vol. ix.;

Nicol

NICOL, JAMES (1810-1879)
NICOL, WILLIAM

. Antonio, Bibliotheca Hispana vetus, vol. ii.; Tiraboschi, Storia della letteratura Italiana, vols. iii. (333) and iv.; Arisi,
Cremona literata; Jourdain, Recherches sur . l'origine des traductions latines d'Aristote; Chasles, Apeeve hislorique des methodes en geometrie, and in Comptes rendus de l'Academie des Sciences, vol. xiii. p. 506; J. T. Reinaud, Geographic d'Aboulfeda, introduction, vol. i. pp. ccxlvi.-ccxlviii.; Boncompagni, Della vita e delle opere di Gherardo Cremonese e di Gherardo da Sabbionetta (Rome,1851). Much of the work of both the Gerards remains in manuscript, as in Paris, National Library, MSS. Lat. 7400, 7421; MSS. Suppl. Lat. 49 ; Rome, Vatican library, 4083, and Ottobon, 1826; Oxford, Bodleian library, Digby, 47, 61. The Vatican MS. 2392 is stated to contain a eulogy
of " Gerard of Cremona " and a

list

LIST (O.E.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
, a Teutonic word, cf. Dut. lust, Ger. Leiste, adapted in Ital. lista and Fr.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
)
LIST,
FRIEDRICH
- FRIEDRICH, JOHANN (1836— )
(1789-1846)

of " translations, apparently
confusing the two scholars. The former's most valuable work was
in astronomy; the latter's in medicine. (C. R. B.)

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