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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Robert Grosseteste was a scholar of many parts; regarded by contemporaries and later historians alike as the vital figure in the intellectual life of thirteenth-century England, his writings range from the theological and pastoral to philosophical and scientific studies. An important aspect of his scholarship, which provides a link through many of his other fields of study, was his work of translation from Greek texts, and it is with this aspect that this paper will deal. In his early writing Grosseteste’s interest in Greek authors, both classical and patristic is clear; indeed he was almost the first western medieval writer to use Greek sources extensively, but it is equally clear that in his citation of authorities he was not working from original texts, but from collections of quotations or earlier Latin translations. It was no easy matter, however, to acquire a knowledge of Greek in England in the early thirteenth, century; but Grosseteste remedied this situation, learning the language when he was over sixty years old and thus providing a path for others to follow him more easily. He summoned Greek scholars to England, of whom some remained in his household and he collected Greek manuscripts, although this involved sending far afield to Athens or Constantinople, to find and procure them.
1 The major works on Grosseteste, on which this paper is based are: Callus, [D. A.] (editor), Robert Grosseteste, [Scholar and Bishop.] (Oxford 1955), Thomson, [S.Harrison], The Writings [of Robert Grosseteste] (Cambridge 1940) and Stevenson, Francis S., Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (London 1899)Google Scholar.
2 Stephens, G. R., Tlie Knowledge of Greek in England in the Middle Ages (London 1933) and James, [M. R.], ‘Greek Manuscripts [in England before the Renaissance’], The Library, 4 series 7 (London 1927) pp 337-53Google Scholar.
3 Hunt, R. W., ‘English Learning in the Late Twelfth Century’ TRHS 19 (1936) pp 19–35 Google Scholar.
4 MA 5 p 191.
5 Giraldi, Cambrensis Opera ed Brewer, J. S., Dimock, J. F. and Warner, G.F., RS 21, 8 vols (London 1861-91) I p 249 Google Scholar.
6 Callus, D. A., ‘The Oxford Career of Robert Grosseteste’ Oxoniensia 10 (Oxford 1945) pp 49–53 Google Scholar.
7 Callus, Robert Grosseteste pp 7-10.
8 Fratris Thomae vulgo dicti de Eccleston Tractatus de Adventu Fratntm Minorum in Angliam, ed Little, A. G. (Manchester 1951) p 48 Google Scholar.
9 [Rogeri] Bacon Opera Inedita [ed Brewer, J. S.], RS 15 (London 1859) pp 91, 472 Google Scholar.
10 Mucide, J. T., ‘Robert Grosseteste’s Use of Greek Sources in his Hexameron’ Medievalia et Humanistica 3 (Boulder, Cleveland 1945) pp 33–48 Google Scholar.
11 [Beryl] Smalley, [‘The Biblical Scholar’], in Callus, Robert Grosseteste pp 79-80.
12 James, M. R., ‘Robert Grosseteste on the Psalms’ JTS 23 (1922) pp 181-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
13 Crossetesle], [Roberti Epistolae Luard, [ed H. R.] RS 25 (London 1861) pp 43–5 Google Scholar.
14 Smalley p 78.
15 [Matthew], Paris, Chron[ica] Mai[ora] [ed Luard, H.R.], RS 57, 7 vols (London 1872-4) 4 p 232 Google Scholar.
16 Trivet, [Nicholas], Annales [ed Hog, Thomas] (London 1845) p 243 Google Scholar.
17 Bacon, Opera Inedita p 472.
18 Ibid pp 433-4.
19 Ibid p 434, also Callus, Robert Grosseteste pp 39-40.
20 Paris, Chron Mai 4 p 232.
21 Rotuli [Roberti] Crosseteste [Episcopi Lincolniensis ed F. N. Davies], Canterbury and York Society 10 (London 1910-13) pp 395, 354; see also Russell, J. C., ‘Dictionary [of Writers of Thirteenth Century England’], BIHR spec suppl 3 (1936) p 89 Google Scholar, and Russell, J. C., ‘The Preferments [and Adiutores of Robert Grossteste’], HTR 26 (Cambridge Mass., 1933) pp 161-72Google Scholar.
22 Franceschini, [E.], Roberto Grossatesta [Vescovo di Lincoln, e le sue Traduzioni Latine] (Venice 1933) pp 15, p 71Google Scholar and also Minio-Paluello, L., ‘Note suil’ Aristotele Latino Medioevale’, Rivista di Filosofia Neoscolastica 42 (Milan 1950) pp 232–6 Google Scholar.
23 James, ‘Greek Manuscripts’ p 344 and also James, M.R., ‘A Graeco-Latin lexikon of the thirteenth-century’ Mélanges offerts à M. Emile Chatelain (Paris 1910) pp 396–411 Google Scholar.
24 Rotuti Grosseteste pp 247, 300.
25 Russell, J. C., ‘Dictionary’ pp 54-5 and also Russell, J. C., ‘The Preferments’ pp 168-9.Google Scholar
26 Paris, Citron Mai 5 pp 284-7.
27 Setton, Kenneth M., ‘The Byzantine Background to the Italian Renaissance’ Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 100 (Philadelphia 1956) pp 60–2 Google Scholar; this article also contains a full bibliography on the knowledge of Greek in England.
28 Callus, Robert Grosseteste p 41.
29 Trivet, Annales p 243.
30 Franceschini, Roberto Grossatesta.
31 Callus, Robert Grosseteste p 43.
32 Pembroke College, Cambridge, MS 20 fol Ir.
33 Callus, [D. A.], ‘The Date [of Grosseteste’s Translations and Commentaries on Pseudo-Dionysius and the Nicomachean Ethics’], RTAM 14 (Louvain 1947) pp 186–200 Google Scholar. The letter of Adam Marsh is in Monumenta Franciscana ed Brewer, J. S., RS 4, 2 vols (London 1858) 1 pp 206–7 Google Scholar.
34 Thomson, The Writings pp 42-4.
35 University Library, Cambridge, MS Ff. i 24, fols 203r-62v.
36 Paris, Chron Mai 4 p 232.
37 Epistolae, Luard p 351.
38 Callus, Robert Grosseteste pp 58-60.
39 Callus, ‘The Date’, pp 201-9.
40 Eptstolae, Luard pp 173-8. The letter is addressed to the abbot and convent ‘de Burgo, Luard considers this to be Peterborough, but Callus translates it as Bury (Robert Grosseteste p 67).