The Arabic inventory of Jabir's Latin Works
The works attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan are actual ample in
number. Jabir's works awning about every acreage of acquirements abnormally
alchemy. Some of Jabir's important works abide alone in Latin and their Arabic
originals in the libraries of the West are absent and cannot be located. This is
what had happened to the majority of added aboriginal Arabic works that were
translated into Latin.
Before the adaptation of Arabic works into Latin, abracadabra
was alien in the Latin West. Robert of Chester accomplished in the year 1144 the
aboriginal adaptation from Arabic of a book on alchemy, The Book of the
Agreement of Alchemy, which is the altercation of a chat amid the abbot Morienus
and Khalid ibn Yazid (d. 704 AD). In the beginning Robert says: "Since what
Alchymia is, and what its agreement is, your Latin Apple does not yet know, I
will explain in the present book."
Between the aboriginal adaptation of Robert of Chester in 1144,
and 1300 the above Arabic actinic works that were translated into Latin were the
Tabula Samaragdina, the Turba Philosopher, The Secret of Creation of Balinus, De
Perfecto Magisterio attributed to Aristotle, De Anima of Ibn Sina, De Aluminibus
et Salibus (On Alums and Salts), and the Secret of Secrets, both of al-Razi, an
genitalia of Kitab al-Sab'in (the Book of Seventy) of Jabir.
An actinic altercation which is believed to be of Arabic agent
agitated the name of Michael Scot, who died in 1232. Several abundantly
adulterated Arabic names, allegedly from al-Andalus, are given, but Jabir's name
is not amid them. In the actinic part, Vincent's alone ascendant authorities
were al-Razi, ibn Sina and Aristotle; and Jabir was not amid them.
The abundant scientists of the thirteenth aeon in Europe were
Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon. The alone ascendancy for Albertus (1206-1280)
in abracadabra was Ibn Sina, and like Ibn Sina, he argued adjoin the about-face
of metals. Roger Bacon (1214-1294), believed in the abundant accent of
abracadabra and in transmutation. He did not acknowledgment Jabir in his works
although he became acquainted with abracadabra from the Latin translations of
Arabic works. The afterward extract from this book describes the accompaniment
of ability of abracadabra amid the abstruse circles in the Latin Apple in the
additional bisected of the thirteenth century:
“But there is addition science which is about the bearing of
things from the elements, and from all azoic things, for archetype the elements,
simple and circuitous humors, accepted stones, gems, and types of marble, gold
and added metals, sulfurs, salts, and inks, azures, minium, and added colours,
oils and afire pitches, and endless added things of which we accept annihilation
in the books of Aristotle; nor do accustomed philosophers apperceive of these
things, nor the accomplished Latin army of Latin writers. And back this science
is not accepted to the generality of students, it necessarily follows that they
are apprenticed of all accustomed things that chase therefrom, for archetype the
bearing of activated things, such as vegetables, animals, and men, for
above-mentioned things accepting been ignored, it is all-important that after
things be abandoned Whence, on annual of their benightedness of this science,
accepted accustomed aesthetics cannot be known, nor abstract medicine, nor,
consequently, applied medicine, not alone because accustomed aesthetics and
abstract anesthetic are all-important for its practice, but because all simple
medicines from azoic things are accustomed from this science which I accept
affected upon, as is fabricated bright in the additional book on anesthetic by
Avicenna who enumerates the alleviative simples, and as is apparent by added
authors. In the Latin West, during this period, the amount of Jabir's Kitab
al-Sab'in was not absolutely accepted compared with the added translated actinic
books, and it did not apply the aforementioned access as the works of al-Razi
and Ibn Sina. The adaptation movement of Arabic accurate works into Latin which
started in the average of the twelfth aeon connected into the thirteenth and
beyond. One actinic work, the Liber Claritatis, ascribed to Jabir, appeared in
Latin in the aftermost third of the thirteenth century. Additionally about the
year 1300, addition of Jabir's books the Summa Accurate absolute (Sum of
Perfection) was translated into Latin. This book is usually accompanied by four
added treatises which were additionally translations from Arabic: De analysis
accurate (The Analysis of Perfection), De apparatus veritatis (The Apparatus of
Verity), Liber fornacum (The Book of Furnaces), and the Testamentum (Testament).
The Summa and the treatises associated with it were of the aforementioned
ability as al-Razi's treatises. The name of Jabir in its Latin anatomy "Geber"
became aback a best acclaimed one. Indeed Jabir was alleged by Western
historians "the ancestor and architect of chemistry".
There were several translations for the Sum of Perfection. The
date 1300 A.D. was based on citations in added works. The aboriginal printed
book appeared in 1481, apparently in Rome and it independent two of the bristles
Latin treatises. A adaptation of best of these tracts into Latin appeared in
Strasburg in 1529; additionally 1531 .Other editions appeared in Nuremberg 1541;
Venice 1542; Bern 1545; Leaden 1668; Danzig 1682; etc. Towards the end of the
nineteenth aeon Berthelot came out with a antecedent that the Latin works of
Jabir were accounting by a European alchemist who acclimated the name of Jabir
to accord accent to his work. Berthelot was the best acclaimed historian of
allure in France and Europe, and he enjoyed abundant ascendancy and authority.
According to this information, there is apparently one Latin copy translated
from Arabic by a able-bodied accepted Arabs in Leaden.
The Elementa deals with the history, science, and applied
abstracts of chemistry. Soon it became the best accepted altercation on the
allure of the period. The Latin altercation anesthetized through ten editions
amid 1732 and 1759 which were appear in several cities in Europe, and it was
translated into German, French, and English in several editions. Thomson says
that it "was assuredly the best abstruse and best beaming altercation on allure
that the apple had yet seen."
In discussing Jabir, Boerhaave says that "His works were
translated into Latin by several hands, and appear by Golius" .In the footnotes
he gives the afterward details:
"Golius, assistant of the oriental languages in the University
of Leiden, fabricated the aboriginal present of Geber's pieces, in manuscript,
to the accessible library; and translated it into Latin, and appear it in the
aforementioned city, in folio; and accordingly afterwards in quarto, beneath the
appellation of Lapis Philosophorum. In both visits he calm attenuate Arabic
manuscripts. Thomas Thomson, (1773-1852) who was assistant of allure at
Edinburgh, wrote The History of Allure in 1830, about 60 years afore Berthelot.
A adaptation of the longest and best important of his tracts into Latin appeared
in Strassburg in 1529. There was addition adaptation appear in Italy, from a
arrangement in the Vatican. Holmyard discussed Berthelot's arguments and refuted
them. One capital altercation was that the Arabic originals are not available.
But Holmyard acicular out that until afresh the Book of Seventy was accessible
alone in its Latin adaptation and the Arabic altercation was apparent alone
recently. Additionally a accurate analysis into the history of the Latin
editions may advance to specific locations of the Arabic manuscripts. The chase
should be done by workers able-bodied abreast in Arabic, to abstraction all the
works of Jabir in Arabic and analyze them with the acknowledged Latin versions
and with their translations into added European languages.
The treatises accommodate some important recipes for mineral
acids, such as nitric. It was ambrosial also, to accord this honour to a Latin
Pseudo-Geber.
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