Constantine the African

Latin Constantinus Africanus

born с 1020, Carthage or Sicily

died 1087, monastery of Monte Cassino, near Cassino, Principality of Benevento

Medieval medical scholar.

He was the first to translate Arabic medical works into Latin. His 37 translated books included The Total Art, a short version of the The Royal Book by the 10th-century Persian physician ʽAlī ibn al-ʽAbbās, introducing Islam's extensive knowledge of Greek medicine to the West. His translations of Hippocrates and Galen first gave the West a view of Greek medicine as a whole.

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▪ medieval medical scholar

Latin  Constantinus Africanus  

born c. 1020, , Carthage or Sicily

died 1087, monastery of Monte Cassino, near Cassino, Principality of Benevento [now in Italy]

      medieval medical scholar who initiated the translation of Arabic medical works into Latin, a development that profoundly influenced Western thought.

      Constantine possessed an excellent knowledge of Greek, Latin, Arabic, and several Oriental languages acquired during his extensive travels in Syria, India, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Persia. He studied at the University of Salerno, Europe's first organized medical school, and entered Monte Cassino, the monastery founded by St. Benedict in 529. At the monastery he translated 37 books from Arabic into Latin, including two treatises by Isaac Israeli, or Isaac the Jew, the Western caliphate's greatest physician. Constantine's most important accomplishment was his introduction to the West of Islām's extensive knowledge of Greek medicine, represented principally by his Pantechne (“The Total Art”), which was an abbreviated version of the Kitāb al-malikī (“The Royal Book”) by the 10th-century Persian physician ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās, or Haly Abbas. Constantine also translated Arabic editions of works by the Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen. These translations were the first works that gave the West a view of Greek medicine as a whole.

      Constantine's translations spread through Europe with extraordinary rapidity, and they had an immense influence on the ages that followed. Although more accurate, polished translations were available soon after Constantine died, his work was studied by European scholars until the 16th century.

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