SCOT AT TOLEDO 45 



of the kingdom. Proof of all this remains in the 

 public acts of the Castiles, which continued to be 

 written in Arabic as late as the fourteenth century, 

 and were signed by Christian prelates in the same 

 characters j 1 in the present language of Spain which 

 retains so many words of eastern origin ; but, above 

 all, in the profound influence, now chiefly engaging 

 our attention, which has left its mark upon almost 

 every branch of our modern science, literature, and 

 art. 



This result was largely owing to a singular 

 enterprise of the twelfth century with which the 

 learned researches of Jourdain have made us familiar. 2 

 Scholars from other lands, such as Constantine, 

 Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester n., Adelard of 

 Bath, Hermann, and Alfred and Daniel de Morlay, 

 had indeed visited Spain during that age and the one 

 which preceded it, and had, as individuals, made 

 a number of translations from the Arabic, among 

 which were various works in medicine and mathe- 

 matics, as well as the first version of the Koran. 

 But in the earlier half of the twelfth century, and 

 precisely between the years 1130 and 1150, this 

 desultory work was reduced to a system by the 

 establishment of a regular school of translation in 

 Toledo. The credit of this foundation, which did 

 so much for mediaeval science and letters, belongs 

 to Don Baymon, Archbishop of Toledo and Primate 

 of Spain. This enlightened and liberal churchman 

 was by origin a French monk, born at Agen, whom 

 Bernard, a previous Primate, had brought south- 

 ward in his train, as he returned from a journey 



1 See Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature, p. 395. 



2 Recherches sur Page tt Vorigine des trad, latines d'Aristote, Paris, 

 1843, chap. iii. passim. 



