The Medieval Latin Translations of al-Khwarizmi’s al-jabr

“Farai Sicome Tòe Amaestrato” (You will Perform, as I Taught You)

“…The transfer of this method to the European mathematical knowledge is proved not only by the three Latin translations made in Spain between the 12 th and the 13 th century (Hughes 1982(Hughes , 1986 by Robert of Chester (1145), Gerard of Cremona (round 1170), and Guglielmo de Lunis (1250), but also by the penetration of the method in the everyday teaching in Mediterranean abacus schools. Leonardo Fibonacci from Pisa studied in one of them: in 1202, in his Liber Abaci, he presented (though in Latin) the summa of Arabic arithmetic-algebraic knowledge to the benefit of European merchants.…”

A Conceptual Analysis of Early Arabic Algebra

“…Three Latin translations of al-Khwārizmī's Algebra are extant in sixteen manuscripts (Hughes 1982). These translations have been identified as from Robert of Chester (c. 1145), Gerard of Cremona (c. 1150) and Guglielmo de Lunis (c. 1250), although there is still discussion whether the latter translation was Latin or Italian.…”

“…A third translation has been edited by Wolfgang Kaunzner (1986). Although this text (Oxford,Bodleian,Lyell 52) was originally attributed to Gerard, it is now considered to be a translation from Guglielmo de Lunis (Hughes 1982). An Italian translation from the Latin is recently published by Franci (2003).…”

Of Our Own Nation: John Wallis's Account of Mathematical Learning in Medieval England

“…He is best known, however, for the first Latin translation of alKhwārizmī's Al-jabr wa'l muqābala, the key text in the evolution of Arabic and European algebra. No copy of Robert's translation reached England [Karpinski 1915, 49-63;Hughes 1982], and unfortunately Wallis never knew of this important English contribution to the early development of algebra. [Halliwell 1839, 84-85] to Morley's only work, his Liber de naturis inferiorum et superiorum.…”