John of Seville was one of the main translators from Arabic into Castilian in partnership with Dominicus Gundissalinus during the early days of the Toledo School of Translators. John of Seville translated a litany of Arabic astrological works, and is also credited with the production of several original works in Latin.
Life and Context
John of Seville was a baptized Jew, whose Jewish name has been corrupted into "Avendeut", "Avendehut", "Avendar" or "Aven Daud". This evolved into the middle name "David", so that, as a native of Toledo, he is frequently referred to as Johannes Toletanus. Some historians argue that in fact there were two different persons with a similar name, one as Juan Hispano and other as Juan Hispalense, this last one perhaps working at Galician Limia, for he signed himself as "Johannes Hispalensis atque Limiensis", during the Reconquista, the Christian campaign to regain the Iberian Peninsula. Though his precise birthdate and death date remain unknown, he is known to have flourished in his work from 1133 to 1153.
Translated and Original works
Since John of Seville had gone by multiple names throughout his lifetime, it is often debated by historians as to which translations of this time period were actually his. The topics of his translated works were mainly astrological, astronomical, philosophical and medical. John of Seville's particular style of translation is recognized by scholars due to his proclivity to translate works, word for word, while continuing to maintain the original languages syntax and grammatical structure.
Astrological and Astronomical
John of Seville translated Al-Farghani'sKitab Usul 'ilm al-nujum into Latin in 1135 under the revised title of, as well as translating the Arab astrologer Albohali's "Book of Birth" into Latin in 1153. This also includes the work to translate another one of Al-Farghani’s works titled Kitāb fī Jawāmiʿ ʿIlm al-Nujūm. He also translated Kitāb taḥāwīl sinī al-‘ālam by Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi into Latin. More notable works of John of Seville include the translations of a manuscript in the library of St. Marks, the Greater Introduction of Albumasar, and the engraved written work of Thebit. Another astronomical work translated by John is De compositione et utilitate astrolabii which is an instructional book explaining the construction of and the how to of astrolabes. The work itself is originally attributed to the Aribic astronomer Mash’allah. Another significant work translated by John of Seville was Omar’s work, Kitâb al-Mawâlid, under the Latin title “De Nativitatibus.” Kitâb al-Mawâlid is an astrological treatise concerning “the interpretation of nativities, or birth horoscopes,” it has three separate books with quotes from other authors such as Ptolemy, Messahallah and Hermes.
Medical and Alchemy
At least three of his translations, a short version of the Secretum Secretorum dedicated to a Queen Tarasia, a tract on gout offered to one of the Popes Gregory, and the original version of the 9th century Arabic philosopher Qusta ibn Luqa's De differentia spiritus et animae, were medical translations intermixed with alchemy in the Hispano-Arabic tradition. A lesser known translation of his titled Speculum Elementorum, also referred to as Tractatus de perfecta et infallibili Medicina arte Akimie, was originally written by an unknown author. Another notable work translated by John of Seville from arabic is the Emerald Tablet, an alchemical work of the Hermetic tradition that is originally credited to Hermes Trismeguistus himself, it was said to contain many alchemical secrets.
Philosophical
In his Book of Algorithms on Practical Arithmetic, John of Seville provides one of the earliest known descriptions of Indian positional notation, whose introduction to Europe is usually associated with the book Liber Abaci by Fibonacci: John of Seville is also credited with working in collaboration with Dominicus Gundissalinus and Jewish philosopherAbraham Ibn Daud to translate the De anima of Avicenna, a philosophical commentary on Aristotle's writings. Avicenna had many other of his works translated such as a philosophical encyclopedia titled Kitab al-Shifa’ and a short script on metaphysics titled Liber de Causis. John even retranslated an original Avicenna translation of Aristotle’s On the Heavens. It is speculated that the written work of Zael, titled Liber temporum, may have been translated by John of Seville. However, the name of the translator was never mentioned in the manuscript so it remains uncertain. A work by Jewish philosopher Avencebrol is believed to be translated by both John of Seville and Dominicus Gundissalinus titled Fons Vitae. Another one of John of Seville's philosophical translation includes the work by philosopher Al-Ghazali titled Maqasid al-falasifa, a book regarding basic philosophical concepts such as judgement, concept and logic.
Original
In addition to his many translations John of Seville is credited with a work of his own titled, Epitome artis astrologiae, written in 1142 which is a summary of astrology as a whole.
