Adelard of Bath

Adelard of Bath is known from the Encyclopaedia of Islam as a Latin translator of the twelfth century who carried works of Arabic science into Latin. The articles read here name him mainly in connection with al-Khwarizmi's astronomical tables and with the Latin history of Euclid's Elements. ^{1 3} They give no dates of birth or death, nothing about his upbringing or travels, and no details of where he learned Arabic. A 1987 volume of studies, edited by C. Burnett and cited in the bibliographies, is titled "Adelard of Bath. An English scientist and Arabist of the early twelfth century", which is the only description of his background in the passages read. ⁴

The article on the science of the heavens ('ilm al-hay'a) explains how the Sindhind tradition of astronomical tables reached Europe. Al-Khwarizmi's Zij al-Sindhind survives only in fragments in Arabic, but a Latin translation exists of the revision made at Cordoba around 1000 by Maslama al-Majriti. The article names the translator as Adelard of Bath and dates the translation to 1126. ¹

The article on al-Khwarizmi adds that the work was the subject of a commentary by Ibn al-Muthanna, lost in Arabic but preserved in Latin and Hebrew. From that commentary it appears that the tables existed in two recensions, and Adelard used the shorter one, corrected by Maslama for the position of Cordoba. ² On the Arabic side, see also Ibn al-Muthanna and the museum's record of the tables themselves, Zij al-Sindhind.

The same article lists several features of this Latin text. It holds the oldest preserved version of a type of sexagesimal table that the article associates with Kushyar ibn Labban, whose own work is lost. ² It is, the article says, the work in which the first mediaeval mathematical symbols appear. ² An analysis of the tables shows a mixed character: lunar theory from an intermediate source, planetary methods from Indian handbooks, and mean-motion values from Brahmagupta. A manuscript at Corpus Christi College, which descends from Adelard's version, also alludes to the to-and-fro motion that the Andalusi astronomer al-Zarqallu discussed at length. ²

The article on Petrus Alfonsi records that in 1116 Alfonsi made an inept Latin adaptation of the same Zij al-Sindhind. It then says that Adelard of Bath, probably with Alfonsi's help, produced a somewhat better version. ⁵ The museum has no separate record of Alfonsi yet, and the sources read do not say how the two men worked together.

The article on Euclid (Uklidis) lists three open questions about the textual history of the Elements, the third being which text lies behind the Arabic manuscripts and behind the Arabic-Latin versions produced in the twelfth century by Adelard of Bath, Hermann of Carinthia and Gerard of Cremona. It adds that the versions of Adelard and of Gerard of Cremona derive from Arabic compilations that combine two traditions, while Hermann's derives from later Arabic recensions. ³ The bibliography of that article refers to the first Latin translation of the Elements "commonly ascribed" to Adelard, a phrasing that signals that the attribution is not treated as settled. ⁴

Another article, discussing short Latin pamphlets on palm-reading, mentions a Ciromantia said to have been translated by John of Seville and by Adelard, and writes the second name with a query. The article itself treats the attribution as doubtful. ⁶

From the sources read, the museum cannot say when or where Adelard was born, where he studied, whether he travelled to Spain, Sicily or the Levant, or when he died. It also cannot say which of the works ascribed to him by other scholarship he actually made. This record will be revised if sources that cover his life are added.