The House of Wisdom (38 page)

30
. Abu Abdallah al-Zuhri,
Kitab al-gughrafiyah
, quoted in Sezgin,
Mathematical Geography
, 79.

31
. Donini,
Arab Travelers and Geographers
, 36.

32
. Sezgin,
Mathematical Geography
, 99.

33
. Nafis Ahmad,
Muslims and the Science of Geography
(Dacca: University Press, 1980), 4.

34
. Al-Muqaddasi,
The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions
, trans. and ed. Basil Anthony Collins (Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing, 1994), 3.

35
. Ibid., xxv.

36
. Ibid., 45.

37
. Sayyid Maqbul Ahmad estimates the weight of the silver planispheric map based on alIdrisi’s own account. See Ahmad, “Cartography of al-Sharif al-Idrisi,” in
History of Cartography
, vol. 2, bk. 1, 159, n. 32.

38
. Ibn Jubayr,
The Travels of Ibn Jubayr
, trans. R. J. C. Broadhurst (London: J. Cape, 1952), 348.

39
. Hiroshi Takayama, “Law and Monarchy in the South,” in
Italy in the Central Middle Ages, 1000–1300
, ed. David Abulafia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 64–67.

40
. Hubert Houben,
Roger II of Sicily: A Ruler Between East and West
, trans. Graham A. Lound and Diane Milburn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 18.

41
. Edmund Curtis,
Roger of Sicily and the Normans in Lower Italy, 1016–1154
(New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1912), 308.

42
. David Abulafia, “The Crown and the Economy Under Roger II and His Successors,”
Dumbarton Oaks Papers 37
(1993): 8.

43
. Houben, Roger
II of Sicily
, 107.

44
. Curtis,
Roger of Sicily
, 297.

45
. J. F. P. Hopkins, “Geographical and Navigational Literature,” in
Religion, Learning and Science in the Abbasid Period
, ed. M. J. L. Young, J. D. Latham, and R. B. Serjeant (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 318.

46
. Al-Safadi, quoted in Sayyid Maqbal Ahmad,
History of Arab-Islamic Geography
, 163.

47
. Al-Idrisi,
Opus geographicum
, quoted in Ahmad, “Cartography of al-Sharif al-Idrisi,” 163.

48
. Ahmad, “Cartography of al-Sharif al-Idrisi,” 167–69.

49
. George H. T. Kimble,
Geography in the Middle Ages
(London: Methuen and Co., 1938), 57.

50
. Curtis,
Roger of Sicily
, 316.

51
. “The Horizons of al-Idrisi in the Eleventh Century,” in
Other Routes: 1500 Years of African and Asian Travel Writing
, ed. Tabish Khair and others (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), 86.

52
. Sezgin,
Mathematical Geography
, 342.

53
. Ibid., 541–42.

54
. Ibid.

55
. Ibid., 309. Details of Vasco da Gama’s report on his journey to India can be found in Joao de Barros,
Ásia
(Lisbon: Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1988), 152.

56
. For a discussion of the Arab influence on Columbus, see J. H. Kramers, “Geography and Commerce,” in
Religion, Learning and Science
, 93–94. See also Donini,
Arab Travelers and Geographers
, 37.

57
. Smith and Karpinski,
Hindu-Arabic Numerals
, 139 (see chap. 3, n. 52).

58
. Curtis,
Roger of Sicily
, 309.

59
. Houben,
Roger II of Sicily
, 179.

60
. Al-Idrisi,
Opus geographicum
, quoted in Karla Mallette,
The Kingdom of Sicily, 1100–1250: A Literary History
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), 146.

61
. Al-Idrisi,
Opus geographicum
, quoted in Ahmad, “Cartography of al-Sharif al-Idrisi,” 159.

62
. Ibid., 163.

63
. Kent Ljungquist, “Poe’s Nubian Geographer,”
American Literature
48, no. 1 (1976): 73.

64
. Kramers, “Geography and Commerce,” 82.

65
. Houben,
Roger II of Sicily
, 179.

66
. Romuald of Salerno, ibid., 179.

Chapter 5: The First Man of Science

1
. Allison Drew, “De Eodem et Diverso,” 20 (see chap. 2, n. 71).

2
. Stephen of Pisa,
Haly filius abbas
, quoted in Charles Burnett, “Antioch as a Link Between Arabic and Latin Culture in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries,” in
L’Occident and le Proch~Oriente au temps des crusades: actes du colloque de Louvain~la~Neuve, 24 et 25 mars 1997
, ed. Isabelle Draelants and others (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Brepols, 2000), 6.

3
. Stephen of Pisa,
Haly filius abbas
, quoted in Charles Homer Haskins,
Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927), 135.

4
. Burnett, “Antioch as a Link,” 6.

5
.
Adelard of Bath
, Burnett, 83 (see Prologue, n. 4).

6
. Ibid., 91.

7
. Charles Burnett, “Talismans: Magic as Science? Necromancy Among the Seven Liberal Arts,” in
Magic and Divination in the Middle Ages: Texts and Techniques in the Islamic and Christian Worlds
(Aldershot, UK: Variorum, 1996), 7.

8
. For a full text in English and Latin, see Charles Burnett, “Magister Iohannes Hispalensis et Limiensis and Qusta ibn Luqa’s ‘
De differentia spiritus et animae
’: A Portuguese Contribution to the Arts Curriculum?,” in
Mediaevalia, textos e estudos
7–8 (1995): 252–55. As Burnett notes, Richard Joseph Lemay first identified this “certain Antiochene” with Adelard of Bath. See Lemay, “The True Place of Astrology in Medieval Science and Philosophy: Towards a Definition,” in
Astrology, Science, and Society: Historical Essays
, ed. Patrick Curry (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 1987), 70.

9
. Burnett, “Talismans: Magic as Science?,” 13.

10
. Lynn Thorndike, “Traditional Medieval Tracts Concerning Engraved Astrological Images,” in
Mélanges Auguste Pelzer
(Louvain, Belgium: Bibliothèque de l’Université, 1947), 231.

11
. Adelard of Bath,
Liber prestigiorum
, quoted in Burnett,
Introduction of Arabic Learning
, 41 (see chap. 2, n. 18).

12
. Emilie Savage-Smith, ed.,
Magic and Divination in Early Islam
(Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004), xxiii.

13
. Adelard of Bath,
Liber prestigiorum
, quoted in Burnett, “Talismans: Magic as Science,” 10.

14
. S. J. Tester,
A History of Western Astrology
(Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 1987), 23.

15
. Richard Kieckhefer,
Magic in the Middle Ages
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 122.

16
. Cyril Stanley Smith and John G. Hawthorne, trans. and eds.,
Mappae Clavicula: A Little Key to the World of Medieval Techniques
(Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1974), 9.

17
. Cochrane,
Adelard of Bath
, 37 (see chap. 2, n. 4).

18
. Charles Burnett and Louise Cochrane, “Adelard and the
Mappae Clavicula
,” in
Adelard of Bath: An English Scientist and Arabist of the Early Twelfth Century
(London: Warburg Institute, 1987), 29–31. See also Cochrane,
Adelard of Bath
, 36–39.

19
. Cochrane,
Adelard of Bath
, 36–37.

20
. Bruce T. Moran,
Distilling Knowledge: Alchemy, Chemistry, and the Scientific Revolution
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 11–12.

21
. For a discussion of the religious aspects of Islamic alchemy and its relationship to modern chemistry, see Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “Islamic Alchemy and the Birth of Chemistry,”
Journal for the History of Arabic Science
3, no. 1 (1979): 40–45.

22
. Nasr, “Islamic Alchemy,” 40–45.

23
. Roger Bacon,
Opus Tertium
, quoted in Crombie,
Augustine to Galileo
, 69 (see chap. 2, n. 3).

24
. Moran,
Distilling Knowledge
, 33.

25
. Ibid., 32–33.

26
. Smith and Hawthorne,
Mappae Clavicula
, 4.

27
. Robert of Ketton,
The Book of the Composition of Alchemy
, quoted in Eric John Holmyard,
Makers of Chemistry
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931), 86. Robert was also known as Robert of Chester, among other names.

28
. William R. Newman, trans. and ed.,
The
Summa perfectionis
of Pseudo~Geber: A Critical Edition, Translation and Study
(Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1991), 5.

29
. Moran,
Distilling Knowledge
, 9.

30
. Lindberg,
Beginnings of Western Science
, 87 (see chap. 2, n. 16).

31
. Thomas L. Heath,
A History of Greek Mathematics
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921), 1: 365.

32
. Jeremy Gray, “Geometry,” in
New Dictionary of the History of Ideas
( Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2005), 3: 92.

33
. H. L. L. Busard,
The First Latin Translation of Euclid’s Elements Commonly Ascribed to Adelard of Bath
(Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1983), 3.

34
. Gutas,
Greek Thought, Arabic Culture
, 120.

35
. Scholars of medieval science have identified at least three early Euclid texts, known by convention as
Adelard I, Adelard II
, and
Adelard III
. Textual analysis, cross-references, and other clues have fueled a lively debate that continues to run. Marshall Clagett first established the basic approach. See Clagett, “The Medieval Latin Translations from the Arabic of the
Elements
of Euclid, with Special Emphasis on the Versions of Adelard of Bath,”
Isis
44 (1953): 16–42.

For further studies and contrasting views, see Busard,
First Latin Translation;
Richard Lorch, “Some Remarks on the Arabic-Latin Euclid,” and Menso Folkerts, “Adelard’s Version of Euclid’s
Elements
,” both in
Adelard of Bath: An English Scientist
, 45–54; and Busard and Folkerts,
Robert of Chester’s (?) Redaction of Euclid’s
Elements,
the So~called Adelard II Version
, 2vols. (Basel, Switzerland: Birkhauser Cerlag, 1992).

36
. Clagett, “Medieval Latin Translations,” 23.

37
. Haskins,
Studies
, 25.

38
. Jean Jolivet, “The Arabic Inheritance,” in
A History of Twelfth~Century Western Philosophy
, ed. Peter Dronke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 122.

39
. For a comparative list of the use of technical terminology, see Busard,
First Latin Translation
, 391–96.

40
. Burnett,
Introduction of Arabic Learning
, 42.

41
. Folkerts, “Adelard’s Version,” 58–59.

42
. A. C. Crombie, “Science,” in
Medieval England
, ed. Austin Lane Poole (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958), 580.

43
.
Adelard of Bath
, Burnett, xi (see Prologue, n. 4).

44
. Herman the German, quoted in F. M. Powicke, “Robert Grosseteste and the Nichmachean Ethics,”
Proceedings of the British Academy
16 (1930): 88. See also Roger French and Andrew Cunningham,
Before Science: The Invention of the Friars’ Natural Philosophy
(Aldershot, UK: Scolar Press, 1996), 231.

45
. French and Cunningham,
Before Science
, 232. French and Cunningham go on to argue that Robert’s interest in geometry with respect to nature is not about measuring and calculating, but about extending his neoplatonic view of nature. Nonetheless, the introduction of geometry to discussions of nature marked an important development in the emergence of scientific thinking. For more on Robert’s innovations in the early scientific method, see A. C. Crombie,
Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science, 1100–1700
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).

46
. Jeremiah M. Hackett, “Adelard of Bath and Roger Bacon: Early English Natural Philosophers and Scientists,”
Endeavour
26, no. 2 (2002): 73.

47
. Cochrane,
Adelard of Bath
, 65–66.

48
. John H. Harvey,
The Medieval Architect
(London: Wayland, 1972), 96.

49
. John H. Harvey, “Geometry and Gothic Design,”
Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society
30 (1986): 47–48.

50
. E. H. Gombrich,
The Story of Art
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995), 185–86.