William of Moerbeke

William of Moerbeke (c.1215–1286), French scholar who was the most important thirteenthcentury translator from Greek into Latin of works in philosophy and natural science. Having joined the Dominicans and spent some time in Greek-speaking territories, William served at the papal court and then as (Catholic) archbishop of Corinth (1278–c.1286). But he worked from the 1260s on as a careful and literal-minded translator. William was the first to render into Latin some of the most important works by Aristotle, including the Politics, Poetics, and History of Animals. He retranslated or revised earlier translations of several other Aristotelian works. William also provided the first Latin versions of commentaries on Aristotle by Alexander of Aphrodisias, Themistius, Ammonius, John Philoponus, and Simplicius, not to mention his efforts on behalf of Greek optics, mathematics, and medicine. When William provided the first Latin translation of Proclus’s Elements of Theology, Western readers could at last recognize the Liber de causis as an Arabic compilation from Proclus rather than as a work by Aristotle. M.D.J.

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