The year 2009 was rich in publications about transmission of culture and learning, e.g. in English, Translatio or the Transmission of culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. L. H. Hollengreen, Brepols 2009; or in French and German, Transfert des savoirs au Moyen Âge/Wissenstransfer im Mittelalter, eds. Stephen Dörr and Raymund Wilhelm, Universitätsverlag Heidelberg 2009. The present volume is a valuable contribution to this field that tries to rethink the theme focusing on translations from Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic into Latin, and from Latin into the vernaculars in the period from the end of the eleventh century to the middle of the thirteenth.
This short volume stands out from similar publications by presenting a title that is much less neutral than the others. It promises histories of conquest, rather than of transmission, or transfer. Une conquête des savoirs paraphrases the French title of one of Isaac Asimov's popular science books, La conquête du savoir (Exploring the Earth and Cosmos: The Growth and Future of Human Knowledge). The two books are, of course, entirely different in scope: Asimov refers to the conquest of the world through scientific achievements, while what the editor of the present volume has in mind is the process by which one social, ethnic, linguistic and/or political entity appropriates the learning of another one: Latin clerics translating works of Arabic philosophers, Western institutions such as the universities using translations of Greek works as textbooks, and so on.
The term 'conquest' suggests that there is more governing the transmission of ideas than intellectual curiosity, and that translation processes cannot be separated from politics and culture. In the end, however, conquest does not emerge as a compelling theme in this volume. Instead, the authors seem to speak to some of the problems raised in the recent debate over Sylvain Gougenheim's controversial book Aristotle au Mont Saint-Michel: Les racines grecques de l'Europe chrétienne Paris: du Seuil, 2008, which was an attempt to minimize at the same time both the impact of Greek thought on Islamic culture, and that of Islamic culture on the Latin Middle Ages. The preface (by Monique Cazeaux), while not mentioning Gougenheim's name, speaks nevertheless about debates that unfortunately became un enjeu politique, and Gougenheim's name appears a few times in the discussions (58, 61, 80). The methodological position of the contributors is one of scientific objectivity, by which they mean that they try to depoliticize the research object (nous chercherons la vérité, the preface says), and to favour minute case studies over broad generalizations.
The volume, which arose from a 2008 conference, contains eight papers on various aspects of the interactions between medieval cultures.
The opening essay, Monique Bourin's Le XIIe siècle féodal et florissant de l'Europe latine serves as an introduction to the historical context: a short and succinct overview of the twelfth century, tackling the questions of chronology and periodization; territorial expansion; mobility of population; demographic density; the growing proficiency in agriculture, crafts, and trades; the increase of the seigneurial wealth; writing; and urbanisation.
Philippe Haugeard in his Traduction et essor de la littérature en langue franaise: l'état d'esprit des premier auteurs de romans (XIIe siècle) reflects on the moment when, through translations from an authoritative language, the vernacular started to evolve. He focuses on French in particular, arguing that translation was often not only into a new language, but also into a new genre, as the case of the romance shows. According to Haugeard, this transformation resulted from three converging elements: the wide diffusion of the classics, which could not be kept only to a small community of learned individuals; the desire for self-expression and autonomy among contemporaries; and the inclination of some members of the clergy to enlarge the social group of their readers.
Alexander Fidora dicusses translation theories in his article, Les différentes approches des traducteurs: de la perception des textes la réception des traductions, and brings into sharp contrast the Greek-Latin and the Arabic-Latin traditions of translating philosophical texts (with a short excursus into Latin-Hebrew translations). He argues that the Greek-Latin versions were at once more literal and more obscure, while the Arabic-Latin versions followed the original texts in a more flexible manner, and were more comprehensible as a result. The distinctive qualities of these two traditions of translation shaped the reading practices of medieval intellectuals, for whom the Arabic-Latin Aristotle served as a sort of commentary to the Greek-Latin Aristotle.
Jacques Verger's Le rôle des traductions dans la naissance de l'université médiévale investigates the place of translations in university education. The author rightly emphasizes that, for the period concerned, no sources exist which would allow a satisfactory treatment of the subject. The universities were not at all concerned with teaching foreign languages, and they had no distinct policy for translations either. The university as institution never commissioned, only consumed the texts, which were usually prepared in courtly contexts.
Jean Jolivet's study is concerned with the place of Avicenna in medieval thought. In Le tournant avicennien Jolivet investigates the intellectual circumstances of Avicenna's entry into Western thought, and his role in shaping Latin medieval philosophy. Jolivet argues that Avicenna's main contribution was the elaboration of his doctrine of essence (essentia, Arabic huwiyya) which fixed the Latin terminology and solved a problem which had long troubled Western philosophers and theologians: the terminological and theoretical confusion surrounding the concepts of substance, essence, and existence. Jolivet traces the aftermath of the Avicennian concept of essence from Thomas Aquinas to Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibnitz.
Jean Celeyrette in Ibn al-Haytham suiveur de Ptolémée? Une thèse controversée en histoire de loptique, reassesses Ibn al-Haytham's place in the history of optics. The Arab scientist subscribed to the so-called intromissionist view (in which the object of seeing emanates the light towards the eye) in contrast with the extramissionist view (in which light from the eye wraps the object of vision). Celeyrette presents two extreme positions in recent scholarship, one seeing Ibn al-Haytham as merely continuing the work of Ptolemy, the other seeing him as revolutionizing optics. Celeyrette, by balancing these views, aims to re-evaluate the Arab scientist's scholarly achievements.
Max Lejbowicz, the volume editor, chose Platon of Tivoli as his subject. In L'acculturation latin selon Platon de Tivoli, Lejbowicz uses a close reading of one of the prefaces by this medieval translator of Arabic and Hebrew into Latin to reflect on the different stages of scientific conquests. He argues that the first step always has to be linguistic; only later can we talk about a scientific conquest proper. The creation of a scientific language is the first task with which translators were preoccupied, for only with an elaborated terminology can they then assess the scientific content of the original works.
The closing study, Tony Lévi's Livres et culture scientifique dans le monde juif en Provence médiévale, offers a panoramic view of medieval Arabic-Hebrew culture and its scientific achievements. The paper catalogues extensive profiles of scholars, and descriptions of various categories of scientific writing.
The publication contains two indices (lists of authors before and after the year 1500) and the transcripts of the discussions that followed the presentations. This is a valuable part of the book serving as useful guide to the readers, highlighting strengths and weaknesses of the papers and also reflections on the main theme of the workshop from the part of both speakers and audience.
The volume will make a valuable reading to all those who are interested in various facets of the history of medieval translation processes.