Gerard, who was born in Cremona, Lombardy, in
1114, was a mediaeval scholar who translated the
works of many major Greek and Arabic writers into
Latin, there being a great body of scientific and
philosophical literature in these languages which
were well worth making available to all the known
world at that time. In this sense, he performed the
same service for his countrymen that Hunain Ibn
Ishaaq had done for eastern Arabia. He went
specially to Toledo, in Spain, to learn Arabic so that
he could read the Almagest by Ptolemy, the Greek
astronomer, geographer and mathematician who
lived in the second century A.D. The Almagest was a
vast computation of the astronomical knowledge of
the ancients, and was accepted as authoritative up
to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. As such,
this was one of Gerard’s most significant
translations. He was assisted in his task by two
other scholars, one Christian and one Jewish. With
this, and other such books, the gates of Greek and
Arabic sciences were opened for the first time to the
west. In the field of medicine, he translated books
by Buqrat and Galen, almost all of the books by
Hunain and Al-Kindi, Abul Qasim Zuhravi’s book
on surgery and many other books on the physical
sciences, including the pamphlet on fossils which is
attributed to Aristotle. Besides these, he rendered
into Latin Avicenna’s massive volume on law and
many other books by Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ishaaq
and Sabit, etc.
Many other purveyors of knowledge were later to
follow in Gerard’s footsteps. In the words of Dr.
Maz Mirhaf, ‘He was the founder of Arabism in the
western world.”
In 1187, in Toledo, Gerard fell ill, and felt himself
that his end was near. He wondered to himself
what would happen when he was gone. “These
books in Arabic are so precious,” he thought, “and
who is going to translate them into western
languages?” His reflections moved him profoundly
and he was fired with new zeal and energy. In spite
of his rapidly failing health, he then succeeded in
translating the remainder of his valuable collection
of books. Legend has it that in the space of one
month before his death, he had completed the
translations of no less than 80 books.
When one feels sufficiently inspired to perform a
task, one undertakes it at all costs, even on one’s
deathbed, and even when one’s external
circumstances are totally adverse. It is one’s will
and one’s motivation to work which are of prime
importance. Health and strength are secondary.
Ref - The Moral Vision
