Alfonso X, The Wise, of Castile (some notes by John Noyce)

 Alfonso, El Sabio and his Translators 

(Alfonso X, The Wise, of Castile)  Some notes by John Noyce 

Alfonso dictating a translation in his court. 

From a manuscript of the Cantigas de Santa Maria (Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial,  Madrid)

The philosopher-king, Alfonso X (1221-1284), known as El Sabio (The Wise), continued the  consolidation of his Castilian kingdom which was to become the basis of modern Christian  Spain. He was a polymath who drew on the cultural traditions present in his kingdom - Arabic,  Jewish and Christian - to codify and reshape knowledge for his expanded kingdom.  

In doing this he was building on the efforts of earlier patrons, notably Archbishop Raimundo  (1130-1187) and his translators in Toledo. During Raimundo’s time in Toledo, the cathedral  library became an important translation centre where Arabic scholars worked alongside Jewish  scholars and Christian monks in translating works from Arabic and Hebrew into Castilian, and  then into Latin, and also directly into Latin. Michael Scot (dates unknown, d. early thirteenth century) translated several of Aristotle’s works including De Coelo et Mundo, Historia  animalium (completed in 19 books by 1220) and De Anima with Averroes’ commentaries. 

Gerard of Cremona (1114-1187) was the most prolific translator with eighty-seven titles.  

Alfonso and his translators in Toledo continued earlier translation efforts to understand the  knowledge of the Arabic culture together with the earlier knowledge-systems from Greece and  India that were embedded in it. Translation methods did however evolve when Alfonso directed  that texts should be translated ‘Ilanos de entender’ (‘easy to understand’) and that Castilian  should be the target language. The team of translators in Toledo was boosted by the recruitment  of well-paid scholars from other European countries such as Italy, Germany, England, and the  Netherlands. When these scholars returned to their countries they carried with them their  acquired knowledge in classical Arabic, classical Greek, and ancient Hebrew.  

Many Arabic scientific treatises were translated into Castilian under King Alfonso’s direction.  One of the first translations of this period was the Lapidario, a book written in Arabic about  the medical properties of various rocks and gems. Abraham of Toledo, a Jewish physician to  both Alfonso and his son Sancho, translated several works from Arabic into Castilian including  Al-Heitham’s treatise on the construction of the universe, and al-Zarqali’s Astrolabe. 

Alfonso’s nephew, Juan Manuel (1282-1348) mentions a possible translation, presumably into  Castilian, of all or parts of the Qur’an. This text had been earlier translated into Latin by Marcus  of Toledo in 1209. 

Many of the Greek texts had already been translated into Latin in Toledo. Michael Scot (dates  unknown – early 13th century) translated several of Aristotle’s works including De Coelo et  Mundo, Historia animalium (completed in 19 books by 1220) and De Anima with Averroes’  commentaries. During Alfonso’s time, the Tetrabiblon and Quadripartitum of Ptolemy were  translated. 

The Indian text, Pancatantra, a compilation of fables, was originally composed in Sanskrit,  and had reached Persia by the sixth century where it was translated into Pahlavi, c.570CE (now  lost). Two centuries later it was translated into Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffa (d.757), under the  title, Kalila wa Dimna. It is this Arabic text which King Alfonso’s translators translated into  Castilian, in 1251, and incorporated into the Calyla e Dymna.  

Alfonso also accessed the knowledge of the Jewish people - both the Rabbinic tradition and  the secret Kabbalistic tradition. He sponsored translations of Hebrew texts into Castilian  including the entire Talmud and some Kabbalistic texts. Don Juan Manuel comments:

Furthermore he ordered the translation of the whole Law of the Jews, and even their Talmud,  and other knowledge which is called Cabala and which the Jews keep closely secret.  

These translations have not survived, but modern historians regard this testimony as likely to  be reliable. (Roth 1985: 440-441) 

Combining Arabic and Jewish knowledge with the existing knowledge of the Christians,  Alfonso and his scholars created a series of syntheses: in law, in history, in medicine, in science,  and in literature. This synthesised knowledge, after being translated from Castilian into Latin,  was to move north into France, being one of the transmissions by which western Europe was  introduced to the knowledge of the Greeks and the Arabs.  

The codification of law in Castile included the vast, comprehensive codex, the Siete Partidas (1256-65). 

In all, some 23 scientific treatises were commissioned by Alfonso. The Libros del saber de la  astrologia, compiled between 1276 and 1279, collected together 16 earlier treatises and was an  attempt to systematize the movement of the stars and constellations. 

The General Estoria, begun in 1270, was an attempt to compile in Castilian a universal history  and was the earliest vernacular universal history. The six surviving parts correspond to the  chronological period covered by the Old Testament. The Estoria de Espana, begun around  1270 and abandoned in 1274, was Alfono’s attempt at a national history. 

El libro de Ajedrez was a compilation of three treatises on recreational games including chess  and dice. The surviving manuscript has some 150 miniatures which depict scenes from the 13th century Castilian court. 

Alfonso is best known today for the Cantigas, or Canticles of Holy Mary. This collection  contains over 400 lyrics and narrative miracles in praise of the Virgin Mary, many of which were set to music by the king and his musicians at the Castilian court in Toledo and later in  Seville. In the surviving manuscripts these are accompanied by nearly 1,300 realistic miniature  paintings of daily life. The book defies categorizing, being a major source of medieval secular  music, an encyclopedia of art forms, and a great work of literature. 

The songs are in the Galician-Portuguese language which was used for lyricism, and to sing of  love and spirituality.  

Cantiga 340, stanzas 1-3 (of 7) 

In praise of Holy Mary 

Virgin, glorious Mother  

Of God, daughter and wife, 

Holy, noble and precious 

Who would know how to praise you? 

Who could do so? (refrain)

We would not see the face of God, 

Which is day and light, 

Because of our nature 

Without you, who was His Dawn. 

For you are the Dawn of all dawns 

Who allows the sinners 

To see their errors 

And to know their folly which diverts 

Man from the promised good  

Which Eve lost by her frailty 

And you, Immaculate Virgin,  

Regained, for you are the Dawn. 

Alfonso and his musicians with the Virgin Mary and Child.