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Medieval Sourcebook: Adelard of Bath: The
Impact of Muslim Science Preface to His Very
Difficult Natural Questions, [Dodi Ve-Nechdi]
c. 1137
Many texts of Greek science and philosophy
were first translated into Syriac, then Arabic,
before becoming available in the Latin. But
Arab science was not only matter of conveying
Greek ideas, but was also open to Persian
and Indian science, as well as its own internal
creativity. In some respects - for instance
problems arising from a belief in a personal
creator God - Arab/Muslim thinkerswere the
first to deal with issues they had in common
with Christian and Jewish thinkers. The Englishman
Adelard of Bath
(d. post 1142) was the first significant
popularizer of Muslim science in the West.
He studies and then taught at schools in
France, and traveled throughout the Mediterranean.
In particular he introduced Euclid and aspects
of astronomy.
As well as more technical treatises, he wrote
Natural Questions - the selections here are
from its preface and part of the body - which
expresses his fundamental belief that God
should not be invoked to explain what human
knowledge can.
On my return the other day to England, in
the reign of Henry [Henry I, r. 1100-35-,
son of William,-it was he who had long maintained
me abroad for the purpose of study-the renewal
of intercourse with my friends gave me both
pleasure and benefit.
After the first natural inquiries about my
own health and that of my friends, my particular
desire was to learn all I could about the
manners and customs of my own country. Making
this then the object of my inquiry, I learnt
that its chief men were violent, its magistrates
wine-lovers, its judges mercenary; that patrons
were fickle, private men sycophants, those
who made promises deceitful, friends full
of jealousy, and almost all men self-seekers:
this realised, the only resource, I said
to myself, is to withdraw my thoughts from
all misery.
Thereupon my friends said to me, "What
do you think of doing, since you neither
wish to adopt this moral depravity yourself,
nor can you prevent it?" My reply was
"to give myself up to oblivion, since
oblivion is the only cure for evils that
cannot be remedied; for he who gives heed
to that which he hates in some sort endures
that which he does not love." Thus we
argued that matter together, and then as
we still had time left for talking, a certain
nephew of mine, who had come along with the
others, rather adding to the tangle than
unraveling it, urged me to publish something
fresh in the way of Arabian learning. As
the rest agreed with him, I took in hand
the treatise which follows: of its profitableness
to its readers I am assured, but am doubtful
whether it will give them pleasure. The present
generation has this ingrained weakness, that
it thinks that nothing discovered by the
moderns is worthy to be received -the result
of this is that if I wanted to publish anything
of my own invention I should attribute it
to someone else, and say, "Someone else
said this, not I." Therefore (that I
may not wholly be robbed of a hearing) it
was a certain great man that discovered all
my ideas, not 1. But of this enough.
Since I have yielded to the request of my
friends so far as to write something, it
remains for you to give your judgment as
to its correctness. About this point I would
that I felt less anxiety, for there is no
essay in the liberal arts, no matter how
well handled, to which you could not give
a wider range. Grant me, therefore, your
sympathy. I shall now proceed to give short
answers to questions put by my nephew.
Here begins Adelard's treatise to his Nephew.
****
ADELARD: You will remember, Nephew, how seven
years ago when you were almost a child in
the learning of the French, and I sent you
along with the rest of my hearers to study
with a man of high reputation, it was agreed
between us that I should devote myself to
the best of my ability to the study of Arabic,
while you on your part were to acquire the
inconsistencies of French ideas.
NEPHEW: I remember, and all the more because,
when departing, you bound me under a solemn
promise to be a diligent student of philosophy.
The result was that I applied myself with
great diligence to this study. Whether what
I have said is correct, the present occasion
will give you an opportunity of discovering;
since when you have often set them forth,
1, as hearer only, have marked the opinions
of the Saracens, and many of them seem to
me quite absurd; I shall, therefore, for
a time cease to exercise this patience, and
when you utter these views, shall attack
them where it seems good to me to do so.
To me it seems that you go too far in your
praise of the Arabs, and show prejudice in
your disparagement of the learning of our
philosophers. Our reward will be that you
will have gained some fruit of your toil;
if you give good answers, and I make a good
showing as your opponent, you will see that
my promise has been well kept.
ADELARD: You perhaps take a little more on
you than you ought; but as this arrangement
will be profitable not only to you but to
many others, I will pardon your forwardness,
making however this one stipulation, that
when I adduce something unfamiliar, people
are to think not that I am putting forward
an idea of my own, but am giving the views
of the Arabs. If anything I say displeases
the less educated, I do not want them to
be displeased with me also: I know too well
what is the fate which attends upon the teachers
of the truth with the common herd, and consequently
shall plead the case of the Arabs, not my
own.
NEPHEW: Let it be as you will, provided nothing
causes you to hold your peace.
ADELARD: I think then that we should begin
with lighter matters, and if here I fail
to give you a reasonable account, you will
know what to expect in more important subjects.
Let us begin then at the bottom, and so proceed
upwards. . . .
ADELARD: It is a little difficult for you
and me to argue about animals. 1, with reason
for my guide, have learned one thing from
my Arab teachers, you, something different;
dazzled by the outward show of authority
you wear a head-stall. For what else should
we call authority but a head-stall? Just
as brute animals are led by the head-stall
where one pleases, without seeing why or
where they are being led, and only follow
the halter by which they are held, so many
of you, bound and fettered as you are by
a low credulity, are led into danger by the
authority of writers. Hence, certain people
arrogating to themselves the title of authorities
have employed an unbounded licence in writing,
and this to such an extent that they have
not hesitated to insinuate into men of low
intellect the false instead of the true.
Why should you not fill sheets of paper,
aye, fill them on both sides, when to-day
you can get readers who require no proof
of sound judgment from you, and are satisfied
merely with the name of a time-worn title?
They do not understand that reason has been
given to individuals that, with it as chief
judge, distinction may be drawn between the
true and the false. Unless reason were appointed
to be the chief judge, to no purpose would
she have been given to us individually: it
would have been enough for the writing of
laws to have been entrusted to one, or at
most to a few, and the rest would have been
satisfied with their ordinances and authority.
Further, the very people who are called authorities
first gained the confidence of their inferiors
only because they followed reason; and those
who are ignorant of reason, or neglect it,
justly desire to be called blind. However,
I will not pursue this subject any further,
though I regard authority as matter for contempt.
This one thing, however, I will say. We must
first search after reason, and when it has
been found, and not until then, authority
if added to it, may be received. Authority
by itself can inspire no confidence in the
philosopher, nor ought it to be used for
such a purpose. Hence logicians have agreed
in treating the argument from authority not
as necessary, but probable only. if, therefore,
you want to bear anything from me, you must
both give and take reason. I am not the man
whom the semblance of an object can possibly
satisfy; and the fact is, that the mere word
is a loose wanton abandoning herself now
to this man, now to that.
****
How the Globe Is Supported in the Middle
of the Air
NEPHEW: . . . I will put the first question
that comes into my head: How is it that this
earth of ours which supports all weights
(I am speaking not of simples, but of compounds),
how is it that it remains in the same place,
or by what is it supported? If all heavy
bodies, such as stone, wood, etc., require
support, and cannot through their weight
be supported by the air, then much more does
the earth, which is heavier than everything
else put together, require to be supported,
nor can it be held in position by so unstable
a body as the air. Hence it is contrary to
reason that it should maintain its position.
ADELARD: Certainly it is inexpedient that
it should fall, and that we also shall not
fall along with it. I will show that its
remaining in its position is in accordance
with reason. From the character of its primary
qualities, we know that the earth has weight;
that which has weight is more secure in the
lowest position; and everything is naturally
fond of that which preserves its life, and
tends towards that for which it has a liking.
It follows therefore that everything which
is earthy tends towards the lowest possible
position. But in the case of anything round,
it is clear that the middle and the lowest
are the same, and therefore all earthy things
tend towards the middle position. Now the
middle position is a simple and indivisible
middle point, and it is therefore clear that
all earthy things tend towards a local and
simple point. But this local point is not
several but one, and must necessarily be
occupied by one thing, not by several; but
to it, as has been said, all things tend:
consequently each one thing presses on something
else, since all and sundry are hastening
to the same point. Now the point to which
all weighty bodies are hastening is that
to which they are falling, for the fall of
weighty bodies is merely a hastening to a
middle point. By the point to which they
are falling I mean the fixed middle point.
The place to which they are falling-the middle
point -remains fixed; and therefore, while
falling into a stable position, they yet
remain fixed, unless some force be impressed
on them as a result of which they are diverted
from their natural course. The very opposite
then is the case to what you thought; and
you will now see clearly that it is what
you thought to be a reason for falling which
gives stability and coherence to heavy bodies.
They are, therefore, in some way sup ported
by the point to which they are hastening;
and if it should move in any direction, all
the things which are affected towards it
would also of necessity move, though of course
in that selfsame spot we have not the first
but the second cause of stability: for, in
accordance with the reason previously given,
the first cause of this equilibrium is the
property of the subject, the second the stability
of the point which it makes for.
From Adelard of Bath, Dodi Ve-Nechdi, ed.
and trans. H. Gollancz, (London: Oxford University
Press, 1920), pp. 91-92, 98-99, 137-138
This text is part of the Internet Medieval
Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection
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(c)Paul Halsall Mar 1996 halsall@murray.fordham.edu
BIOGRAPHY by J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Born: 1075 in Bath, England Died: 1160 Show
birthplace location
Few details of Adelard's life are known with
certainty. We do know that he studied in
Tours in the Loire Valley in west central
France and that he later taught at Laon in
the Picardie region of northern France. Laon
lies northwest of Reims and northeast of
Paris. Adelard may have taught at the theological
and exegetical school there which had been
founded by Anselm of Laon in about 1100.
After leaving Laon, Adelard travelled for
about seven years visiting first Salerno
southeast of Naples. The medical school at
Salerno, considered by many to be the first
"modern" European university, was
a famous institution at this time, drawing
students from all over Europe. From Salerno
Adelard travelled to Sicily which at that
time was under Norman control but still strongly
influenced by Arabic traditions. The Arabs
from North Africa had conquered the island
in 965 and remained in control for about
100 years but the Normans gained the island
in 1060.
Adelard next visited Cilicia, an ancient
district of southern Anatolia which today
is in Turkey. Cilicia was on the north east
coast of the Mediterranean Sea and Adelard
took the natural coastal route round the
east end of the Mediterranean to Syria and
then later to Palestine. We know that he
returned to Bath and is mentioned in the
records of that city for the year 1130. There
is no record of Adelard visiting Spain, but
many scholars have concluded that he must
have visited that country to have had access
to the Spanish-Arabic texts which he translated.
Certainly Adelard became an expert in the
Arabic language which he might have learnt
in Spain as did Gherard of Cremona a few
years later. However, there is an alternative
theory that he learnt Arabic in Sicily. It
is quite possible that, if this were the
case, then he came in contact with Spanish-Arabic
texts in Sicily for several scholars who
had lived in Spain were at this time in Sicily.
Adelard wrote a number of original works
on philosophy. The first work that he is
known to have written is a philosophy text
written before 1116 and dedicated to William,
Bishop of Syracuse. Since Syracuse was one
of the most important cities of ancient Sicily,
this work is likely to have been written
around the time of Adelard's visit to that
island. However, since the work is based
firmly on Plato's philosophy, without any
signs of Arabic influences, it may have been
mostly written before Adelard's visits brought
him in contact with the learning of the Arabs.
It is not as a philosopher that Adelard merits
inclusion in this archive. Rather it is because
he is [1]:-
... one of the translators who made the first
wholesale conversion of Arabo-Greek learning
from Arabic into Latin.
Adelard made Latin translations of Euclid's
Elements from Arabic sources which were for
centuries the chief geometry textbooks in
the West. In fact there seem to have been
three separate versions of Euclid's Elements
written by Adelard. Version one is a translation
of the whole fifteen books (the 13 original
books written by Euclid and the two further
books written by Hypsicles). Adelard seems
to have taken as his source one of al-Hajjaj's
Arabic translations from Greek.
The second version of Euclid's Elements by
Adelard is quite different. It contains quite
different wording of the statements of the
propositions to that of version one, while
the proofs are often only outlines or indications
of how proofs might be constructed. The style
of the translation tells experts that Adelard
did not produce this from his own version
one, but rather that he used some unknown
Arabic source different from al-Hajjaj's
translations.
There is debate as to whether the third version
of Euclid's Elements attributed to Adelard
is indeed his work. It is a commentary on
Euclid's Elements rather than a translation
of the original text. We know it was written
before 1200 and became quite well known under
Adelard's name. Roger Bacon gives quotes
from this version in his works.
Adelard also translated al-Khwarizmi's tables,
wrote on the abacus and on the astrolabe.
We should make some further comments on his
translation of al-Khwarizmi's tables which
became the first Latin astronomical tables
of the Arabic type with their Greek influences
and Indian symbols. These tables contain,
at the end of chapter 4, the date of 26 January
1126 (at least that is what the Arabic date
of A. H. 520 Muharram 1 corresponds to).
It is hard to see what this date is there
for unless it is the date when the chapter
was completed, and so it has been taken as
the approximate date for Adelard's translation.
However, there is a manuscript (written later
but a copy of Adelard's translation) which
mentions an eclipse of the sun which took
place in 1133. It is possible that Adelard's
translation took place after 1133 or, equally
likely, that the scribe making the later
copy added information about a recent eclipse
which was not in Adelard's original text.
Adelard also wrote arithmetic books, the
earliest one of which was written before
he studied Arabic arithmetic. It is based
on the work of Boethius. A mathematics treatise
which is strongly influenced by Arabic ideas
has been attributed to Adelard although the
attribution is not certain. The work consists
of five books, the first three of which are
on arithmetic and based on the Indian methods
as presented in Arab writings. It has been
conjectured that these books are based on
an arithmetic book by al-Khwarizmi which
is now lost. The remaining two books of the
five which compose the treatise cover geometry,
which is completely Greek in style, music,
and astronomy. The astronomy, like the arithmetic,
is Arabic in style.
Adelard's Quaestiones naturales consists
of 76 scientific discussions based on Arabic
science. In this work he promoted the use
of experimental data and writes that he [1]:-
... prefers reason to authority.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson |
Evans Experientialism 
