Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T23:29:07.751Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ways and Means of Science in Medieval Spain

Erasmus Lecture given at the Toledo General Meeting of the Academia Europaea 2007

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2008

Francisco Márquez-Villanueva
Francisco Márquez-Villanueva*
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The concept of tolerance initially advanced by the Arabs in both the East and the Iberian peninsula, an ideal later continued at the time of the Reconquest by Spanish Christians, was the key to the transmission of Greek science to the West. This paper examines the far-reaching and peculiar ways in which both Christians and Muslims fostered on Spanish soil a thriving intellectual life in the low Middle Ages. Particular attention is given to the rich personality and precociously modern achievements of King Alfonso X, with his vast project of cultural empowerment on behalf of his subjects.

Type
Articles
Information
European Review , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , May 2008 , pp. 145 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References and Notes

1. G. Minois (1990) L’Église et la science, 2 vols (París: Fayard) vol. I, pp. 110–112.Google Scholar
2. G. Sarton (1988) The History of Science and the New Humanism (New Brunswick, NJ), p. 87.Google Scholar
3.Makki, M. (1989) El Islam frente a las minorías cristianas.Actas de las I Jornadas de Cultura Islámica (Madrid: Alfadila), pp. 43–49.Google Scholar
4.Balty-Guesdon, M. G. (1992) Le ‘Bayt al-Hikma’ de Bagdad. Arabica, 39, 131–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Millás Vallicrosa, J. M. (1950) Estudios sobre Azarquiel (Madrid: CSIC), p. 402.Google Scholar
6.Lindberg, D. C. (1983) Science and the early Christian church. Isis, 74, 509–530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.McCluskey, S. C. (1990) Gregory of Tours, monastic timekeeping and early Christian attitudes to astronomy. Isis, 81, 9–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Millás Vallicrosa, J. M. (1954) La corriente de las traducciones científicas de origen oriental hasta fines del siglo XIII. Cahiers d’histoire mondiale, 2, 395–428.Google Scholar
9. A movement now updated by J. M. Gázquez (2007) La ignorancia y negligencia de los latinos ante la riqueza de los estudios árabes (Barcelona: Real Academia de Buenas Letras).Google Scholar
10.Flusche, A. M. (2005) The Life and Legend of Gerbert of Aurillac (Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press).Google Scholar
11. His immensely successful Disciplina clericalis is ‘a manual of moral education without reference to Christian truth’ for J. Tolan (1993) Petrus Alphonsus and His Medieval Readers (Gainesville: University Press of Florida), p. 73. See also D. Metzliski (1977) The Matter of Araby in Medieval England (New Haven and London: Yale University Press); amply reviewed by S. G. Armistead (1978) Science and literature in the Middle Ages: England, Spain, and the Arabs. Hispanic Review, 46, 325–240.Google Scholar
12. R. Gonzálvez Ruíz (1983) La sociedad toledana bajomedieval (siglos XII-XIV). I Congreso Internacional de las Tres Culturas (Toledo), p. 153.Google Scholar
13.Lévi-Provençal, É. (1947) Séville musulmane au début du XII siècle (Paris: Maisonneuve), p. 128.Google Scholar
14.Toomer, G. J. (1988) Ptolemy’s ‘Almagest’ (Princeton: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
15.Vernet, J. (1948) Un tractat d’obstetricia astrológica. Boletín de la Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona, 22, 69–96.Google Scholar
16. L. Thorndike (1959) John of Seville. Speculum, 34, 20–38. His clouded identity is discussed by M. Thérèse D’Alverny (1982) Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfh Century, edited by R. L. Benson and G. Constable (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), pp. 421–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17.Carmody, F. J. (1956) Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Science in Latin Translation (Berkeley and Los Angeles: California University Press).Google Scholar
18.Gingerich, O. (1990) Alfonso the Tenth as a Patron of Astronomy. Alfonso X of Castile. The Learned King (1221–1284) edited by F. Márquez-Villanueva and C. Vega (Cambridge, MA: Dept. of Romance Languages at Harvard University), pp. 30–45.Google Scholar
19.Vernet, J. (1970) Astrología y política en la Córdoba del siglo X. Revista del Instituto de Estudios Islámicos de Madrid, 15, 91–100.Google Scholar
20.Viladrich, M. and Martí, R. (1983) En torno a los tratados de uso del astrolabio hasta el siglo XIII en al-Ándalus, la Marca Hispánica y Castilla. Nuevos estudios sobre astronomía española en el siglo de Alfonso X (Barcelona: CSIC), pp. 9–74.Google Scholar
21.Kritzeck, J. (1964) Peter the Venerable and Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22.Monneret de Villard, U. (1944) Lo studio del Islam in Europa nel XII e nel XIII secolo (Cittá del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana).Google Scholar
23. G. Sarton (1988) The History of Science and the New Humanism (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books), p. 87. The misleading idea had been launched by E. Renan in 1883; see P. Benoît and F. Micheau (1995) The Arab intermediary. A History of Scientific Thought. Elements of a History of Science (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers), pp. 101–221.Google Scholar
24.Lemay, R. (1962) Abu Ma’shar and Latin Aristotelianism in the Twelfth Century. The Recovery of Aristotle’s Natural Philosophy Through Arabic Astrology (Beirut: American University).Google Scholar
25.Marín, M. (1987) La transmisión del saber en al-Ándalus. Al-Qantara, 8, 87–97.Google Scholar
26. F. Márquez-Villanueva (2004) El concepto cultural alfonsí (Barcelona: Bellaterra), p. 180. We only have direct knowledge of a famous one under Muhammad ibn Ahmad Abu Bakr al-Riquti, attended by scholars of the three religions and continued under Alfonso X after his conquest of Murcia (F. Márquez-Villanueva (2004) El concepto cultural alfonsí (Barcelona: Bellaterra), pp. 172–173.Google Scholar
27. A. Castro (1983) España en su historia, cristianos, moros y judíos (Barcelona: Crítica), p. 458. G. Beaujoan (1967) La science en Espagne au XIVe et XV siécles (Paris: Université de Paris), pp. 9–10. F. M. Villanueva (1994) Nueva visión de la escuela de traductores toledanos. In: A. Doron (ed.) The Culture of Spanish Jewry (Tel Aviv: Levinsky College of Education), pp. 123–146.Google Scholar
28.Linehan, P. (1971) The Spanish Church and the Papacy in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 237.Google Scholar
29.Nasr, S. H. (1987) Science and Civilization in Islam (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), p. 41.Google Scholar
30.Villanueva, F. M. (1997) La magia erótica del ‘Lapidario alfonsí’. Homenaje a Rafael Lapesa. Anuario de Letras (México), 35, 349–369.Google Scholar
31. M. ibn Ahmad Majriti (1982) Picatrix: el fin del sabio y el mejor de dos medios para avanzar, edited by M. Villegas (Madrid: Editora Nacional); L. Thorndike (1923) A History of Magic and Experimental Science During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era (New York: Columbia University Press) vol. II, p. 813.Google Scholar
32. R. Lemay (1977) The hispanic origin of our present numeral forms. Viator, 8, 435–462. P. Kunitzch (1997) Les relations scientifiques entre l’occident et le monde arabe à l’époque de Gerbert. In: N. Charbonnel and J. E. Jung (eds) Gerbert l’Européen (Société des Lettres, Sciences et Arts ‘La Haute Auvergne), pp. 193–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33. It is worth noting that the fact cannot be attributed in this case to the usual Eastern influences, as the Arabs scarcely paid any attention to the study of music. See G. Beaujoan (1982) The transformation of the Quadrivium: Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century. Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, edited by A. L. Bension and others (Cambridge MA, Harvard UP), pp. 463–487.Google Scholar
34.Lemay, R. (1963) Dans l’Espagne du XIIe siècle. Les traductions de l’arabe au latin, Annales. Economies, sociétés, civilisations, 18, 639–665.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35. C. Fraker (1990) Abraham in the ‘General estoria’. Alfonso X. The Learned King, edited by F. Márquez-Villanueva and E. A. Vega (Cambridge MA, Dept of Romance Languages, Harvard University), pp. 17–29.Google Scholar
36.Rico, F. (1967) Aristóteles Hispanus: en torno a Gil de Zamora, Petrarca y Juan de Mena. Italia Medioevale e Umanistica, 10, 143–164.Google Scholar
37.Kinkade, R. P. (1968) Los Lucidarios españoles (Madrid: Gredos).Google Scholar
38. ‘Maestro, yo so tu discipulo e tu me as ensennado mucho bien pero el saber que tu me mostresti es todo de thologia, e en esta villa en que nos viuimos ay muchas escuelas en que leen muchos saberes, e contesçeme muchas vegadas que vo alla a estas escuelas, a algunas dellas, por veer que tales son e otrosy por oyr los maestros que y estan leyendo si amuestran tan bien sus discipulos como vos mostraredes a mi. E acaesceme asi que he de entrar en alguna destas escuelas en que leen el arte que llaman de naturas e falle y buelta muy gran disputacion entre los escollares con su maestro, e tan grande fue el sabor que ende obe de aquellas cosas que vi y disputar que me vos quiero manifestar toda la verdad, e torne y muchas vegadas por oyr porque aprendiese mas. E quanto bien pare mientes en aquellas cosas que ally oy, falle que muchas eran contrarias de las que oy a vos, e enante que lo viniese a disputar con otro escolar, quise lo veer antes con vos que sodes mi maestro, que me diesedes rrecaudo las cosas que vos demandare e segund lo que sabedes e entendedes. (R. P. Kinkade (1968) Los Lucidarios españoles (Madrid: Gredos), pp. 82–83).Google Scholar
39.Hernández, F. J. and Linehan, P. (2004) The Mozarabic Cardinal. The Life and times of Gonzalo Pérez Gudiel (Florence: Sismel. Edizioni del Galluzzo).Google Scholar
40.Muñoz, P. C. (1994) Preliminares sobre el tema de la magia en Lope de Barrientos. Actas del III Congreso de la Asociación Hispánica de Literatura Medieval (Salamanca: Depto. de Literatura Española) vol. I, pp. 289–294.Google Scholar
41.Samsó, J. (1980) Alfonso X y los orígenes de la astrología hispánica. In: J. Vernet (ed.) Estudios sobre historia de la ciencia árabe (Barcelona: CSIC), pp. 83–114.Google Scholar
42. A. Paz y Meliá (1899) La Biblia puesta en romance por Rabí Mosé Arragel de Guadalfajara (Madrid: Victoriano Suárez); S. Fellous (2000) Histoire de la Bible de Moïse Arragel: quand un rabin interprète la Bible por les Chrétiens: Toléde: 1422–1433 (Paris: Somogy).Google Scholar
43.Negrón, L. G. (2001) Alfonso de la Torre’s ‘Visión deleytable’: Philosophical Rationalism, and the Religious Imagination in 15th Century Spain (Leiden-Boston: Brill).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
44.Curtius, E. R. (1990) European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages Marcel Butaillon (Princeton: Princeton University Press), pp. 542–543.Google Scholar
45. (1950) La ‘Visión deleitable de la philosophie et des arts libéraux’. Annuaire du College de France 50, 258–262.Google Scholar