Hermann of Carinthia

Hermann of Carinthia was a twelfth-century translator of Arabic scientific works into Latin. The Encyclopaedia of Islam has no article on him; he appears in passing in several entries, under a variety of names: Hermann of Carinthia, Hermann of Dalmatia (Hermannus Dalmata), and, in one article, Hermannus Secundus or the German. ^{3 1 4} The articles do not say in so many words that these names belong to one man, and the museum groups them here on that understanding, because the names belong to the same period and kind of work. Readers should treat the grouping as a convenience, not as a finding of the source. The articles give no birth or death date and no account of his life.

The article on orientalists says that when Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, visited Spain in 1142 and may have discussed with Archbishop Raymund a plan to put Islamic texts into Latin, he commissioned scholars of his order who were working on astronomy, Robert of Ketton, also called Robert of Chester, and Hermann of Dalmatia, to translate five Islamic texts, among them the Qur'an. Robert finished the Qur'an translation by 1143. ¹ See Robert of Ketton for that translation.

In the article on the astrolabe, the Planisphaerium of Ptolemy is said to survive only in a Latin translation made by Hermannus Dalmata from the Arabic version of Maslama al-Majriti; the critical edition is by J. L. Heiberg. The article calls the Planisphaerium the earliest special treatise on stereographic projection. ²

The article on Abu Ma'shar says his Great Introduction to astrology was translated into Latin twice, in 1130 by Johannes Hispalensis, that is John of Seville, and in 1150 by Hermannus Secundus or the German. Hermann's translation was printed at Augsburg in 1489 and again at Venice in 1495 and 1506, under the title Introductorium in astronomiam. ⁴

The article on astrological decrees lists a Fatidica or Fastitica pronostica among works attributed to Sahl ibn Bishr, and says Hermann of Carinthia translated it. ⁵

The article on Euclid says the twelfth century saw Arabic-Latin versions of the Elements by Adelard of Bath, Hermann of Carinthia and Gerard of Cremona. It says the versions derive either from the two main Arabic traditions, those of Adelard and of Gerard, or from later Arabic recensions, and puts Hermann among the latter. ³ Its bibliography lists a 1995 study by S. Brentjes on Hermann's version of the Elements and its relation to the Arabic transmission. ⁶

The article on orientalists also names a Hermannus Alemannus in the second half of the thirteenth century, as a well-known translator of that period. ⁷ The museum does not treat him as the same person, because the article places him a century later.

The articles read give no birth, death or birthplace, do not say how Carinthia, Dalmatia or Cluny relate to his life, and date only the Abu Ma'shar translation, to 1150. They also do not date his Ptolemy and Euclid translations.