Plato Tiburtinus (Latin: Plato Tiburtinus, "Plato of Tivoli"; fl. 12th century) was a 12th-century Italian mathematician, astronomer and translator who lived in Barcelona from 1116 to 1138.[1] He is best known for translating Hebrew and Arabic documents into Latin, and was apparently the first to translate information on the astrolabe (an astronomical instrument) from Arabic.
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Plato of Tivoli translated the Arab astrologer Albohali's "Book of Birth" into Latin in 1136.[2] He translated Claudius Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos from Arabic to Latin in 1138,[3] the astronomical works of al-Battani, Theodosius' Spherics and the Liber Embadorum by Abraham bar Chiia.[4] He has worked together with the Jewish mathematician Savasorda (Abraham Bar Ḥiyya Ha-Nasi). His manuscripts were widely circulated and were among others used by Albertus Magnus and Fibonacci.
Works
editTo him are attributed four works in science-mathematics:
- The Liber Embadorum (“Book of Areas,” or “Practical Geometry”), it was transferred (after a date astronomical specified in the text ) in 1145 from the Hebrew. The book had an influence on the Geometry of Fibonacci book and contains one of the first comprehensive treatments of quadratic equations in the Occident.
- The Spherics by Theodosius of Bithynia,
- Al-Battān, i’s al-Zij (“Astronomical Treatise”)
- The De usu astrolabii of Abu’l-Qāsim Maslama (Ibn al-Sạffār), The manuscript contains information about the first astrolabe in the West.
The translations from the Arabic of seven other works (five astrological, one geomantical, and one medical [now lost]) are ascribed to Plato:
- Ptolemy’s Quadripartitum,
- The Iudicia Almansoris,
- The De electionibus horarum of Ali ibn Aḥmad al-Imrani,
- The De nativitatibus or De iudiciis nativitatum of Abu 'Ali al-Khaiyat,
- The De revolutionibus nativitatum by Abū Bakr al-Ḥasan (Albubather),
- The Questiones geomantice or Liber Arenalis scientie by “Alfakini, son of Abizarch” or “son of Abraham”,
- A De pulsibus et urinis by “Aeneas”.
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ Charles E. Butterworth, Blake Andrée Kessel, The Introduction of Arabic philosophy into Europe, (Brill, 1994), 11.
- ^ Houtsma, p.875
- ^ Jim Tester, Astrology of the Western World, (1987), p. 54
- ^ David Eugene Smith, History of Mathematics, (Dover Publications, Inc, 1951), 201.
Further reading
edit- Baldassarre Boncompagni: Delle versioni fatte da Platone Tiburtino. Atti dell’ Accademia pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei, 4, 1851, S. 249–286
- F. J. Carmody: Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation: A Critical Bibliography. Berkeley, Los Angeles 1956
- Charles Homer Haskins: Studies in History of Medieval Science. Cambridge, Massachusetts 1924
- Charles Homer Haskins: The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1927
- George Sarton: Introduction to the History of Science. Band 2, Teil 1, Baltimore 1931, S. 177–179
- Moritz Steinschneider Die Europäischen Übersetzungen aus dem Arabischen bis Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Graz 1956
- Moritz Steinschneider: Abraham Judaeus: Savasorda und Ibn Esra … In: Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik. Band 12, 1867, S. 1–44
External links
edit- Minio-Paluello, Lorenzo (2008) [1970-80]. "Plato of Tivoli". Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Encyclopedia.com.
- Translators
- Article in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography by Lorenzo Minio-Paluello