SCOT TRANSLATES AVERROES 117 



fact that a Jewish interpreter was attached to each, 

 and rendered important service as a member of the 

 college. Under Don Raymon this place was held 

 by Johannes Avendeath, or Johannes Hispalensis 

 as he is commonly called, who worked along with 

 the Archdeacon. ' You have then/ says Avendeath, 

 addressing the Archbishop, 'the book which has 

 been translated from the Arabic according to your 

 commands : I reading it word by word into the 

 vernacular (Spanish), and Dominic the Archdeacon 

 rendering rny words one by one into Latin.' 1 The 

 same division of labour seems to have been followed 

 in the new school which Frederick promoted. The 

 Emperor drew the attention of these learned men to 

 Averroes, and signified his desire that a version of 

 this author should be prepared like that which had 

 been made from Avicenna. Michael Scot and Gerard 

 of Cremona were responsible, the former probably in 

 a special sense, both for the general conduct of the 

 undertaking, and, in particular, for the accuracy of 

 the Latin. Now these scholars also, like their 

 predecessors, availed themselves of the help of a 

 Jewish interpreter. This was one Andrew Alpha- 

 girus, who seems to have taken the same part that 

 Avendeath had formerly done, by translating the 

 Arabic of Averroes into current Spanish, which Scot 

 and his coadjutor then rendered into Latin. 



Such at least appear to be the suggestions 

 which offer themselves naturally to one who per- 

 uses the colophon to the copy of the De Animalibus 

 ad Caesarem preserved in the Bibliotheca Angelica 



1 See preface to the De Anima, of Avicenna, MSS. Fondo Vaticano 

 4428, p. 78vo, and 2089, p. 307ro. Jourdain has reprinted this 

 preface in his Recherche*, p. 449, from the MSS. Fonds de Sorbonne 

 1793 and Ancien Fonds 6443. 



