James of Venice

James of Venice (fl. second quarter of the 11th century – died after 1147) was a Catholic cleric and significant translator of Aristotle of the twelfth century. He has been called "the first systematic translator of Aristotle since Boethius." Not much is otherwise known about him.

He was active in particular in Constantinople; he translated the Posterior Analytics from Greek to Latin in the period 1125–1150. This made available in Western Europe for the first time in half a millennium what was then called the New Logic, in other words the full Organon. He also translated Physics, On the Soul, and Metaphysics (the oldest known Latin translation of the work).

Biography

Little is known about James of Venice. He introduces himself as Iacobus Veneticus Graecus, and his Latin is marked by the Greek language, without it being known whether he was a Greek raised in Venice, or a Venetian raised in Constantinople. It is possible, but not proven, that he studied philosophy in Constantinople.

Robert of Torigni, abbot of Mont Saint-Michel from 1154 to 1186, refers to him as "James cleric of Venise" ("Jacobus clericus de venecia"), which "[...] might mean that he never achieved any higher ecclesiastical position, probably he was never ordained a priest".

He is mentioned, along with the jurist and translator Burgundio of Pisa and the poet and philologist Moses of Bergamo, among the Latin scholars who attended a public theological debate that took place on April 3, 1136 in Constantinople in the Pisan quarter, between Bishop Anselm of Havelberg and the Orthodox Archbishop Nicetas of Nicomedia.

It was in Italy that he trained in canon law. As a canonist, he was consulted in 1148 by the Archbishop of Ravenna on a question of precedence between the latter and the Archbishop of Milan, Moses of Verceil. This dispute was settled by Pope Eugene III at the Council of Cremona in 1148. James of Venice quotes both Latin and Byzantine authors, demonstrates solid legal skills, and knows enough to argue before an archbishop and his chapter.

The translations of Aristotle

File:Charles V ordonnant la traduction d'Aristote copy.jpg

Charles V ordering the translation of Aristotle. Illumination of the prologue to Aristotle's Politics, Economics, Ethics.

James is best known and cited as the principal translator of Aristotle from Greek into Latin in the 12th century, and in many copies of the thirteenth century the translation is attributed to him as "translatio Jacobi". He is credited with the first translations from Greek into Latin of the Physics, the Metaphysics (only books I to IV, 4, 1007 a31) and the De Anima. He is also credited with translating parts of the Parva naturalia (in particular the translatio vetus of the De morte et vita, the De memoria, the De juventute and the De respiratione), as well as new versions of texts already translated by Boethius: the Topics and the Sophistical Refutations (fragments), the Prior and Posterior Analytics (for the latter, his translation was used throughout the Middle Ages: there are 275 manuscripts of them, as opposed to only eight for the three other known translations). We also have fragments of a commentary on the Refutations and the Posterior Analytics to which his name is attached.

We learn from the prologue of a Latin translation of the Posterior Analytics from the middle of the 12th century that the "Masters of France" (perhaps those of Chartres or Paris) knew the translations of James of Venice at that time and used them even though they were "covered with obscurity". John of Salisbury was also familiar with the recent translations of James of Venice. He uses James' translation of the Posterior in his Metalogicon (1159). In a letter to Richard, archdeacon of Coutances, he asks him to make copies of the works of Aristotle that he possesses, with explanations when the text is difficult, because he distrusts the translations of James. In fact, it appears today that James of Venice had gaps in certain rules of grammar of ancient Greek and in Greek mythology. Another reason for the difficulties is that his style of translation is very literal, close to Greek syntax: when a word has no exact equivalent in Latin, he first gives the Greek and then a corresponding Latin word which then acquires a new definition. Philosophical vocabulary thus owes him many technical terms.

The role of Mont Saint-Michel in the diffusion of the translations of James of Venice

The abbot of Mont Saint-Michel, Robert de Torigni, speaks of the translations of James of Venice in an addition to a copy of his Chronicle, between the dates 1128 and 1129. The addition is in his hand or that of his scribe, and the copy was made after his election as abbot of the mount in 1154, and before 1169. It is not known when and how Robert of Torigni learned this information. Coloman Viola suggests that this may have been done either by the French theologians ("the French masters") who knew the translations, or through the intermediary of the archdeacon Richard of Coutances, who was himself in contact with John of Salisbury, or on the occasion of the Council of Tours in 1163, James of Venice being known in pontifical circles.

Whether the place at which Robert of Torigni inserted his addition to his Chronicle (between 1128 and 1129) corresponds to the date at which James of Venice had made his translations (or at least part of them) is debated. Lorenzo Minio-Paluello thinks that this location simply corresponds to a blank space in the manuscript. Coloman Viola, on the other hand, based on a similar addition concerning a translation of John of Damascus by Eugenius Papa, at a date which turns out to be accurate, thinks that the same is true for James of Venice.

The collection of the library of Mont Saint-Michel (now at the Scriptorial in Avranches) possesses the earliest known copies of most of the identified translations of James of Venice in two manuscripts that also contain other texts. One of the two manuscripts (ms. 221) was copied in the scriptorium of Mont Saint-Michel, the other in the north of France (ms. 232), and they both date from the second half of the eleventh century, thus from the time of Robert de Torigni, who thus seems to have played "a pioneering role in the dissemination of the new Aristotelian literature."

James of Venice and the translations of Aristotle that he would have made, with other anonymous authors at Mont Saint-Michel, are at the heart of the thesis of the medievalist Sylvain Gouguenheim in his book Aristote au mont Saint-Michel (2008), which minimizes the role of Muslims and Arabs in the transmission to the Latin West of the texts and sciences of ancient Greece. This publication triggered a media controversy in the context of the Clash of Civilizations and the "Christian roots of the West", and was strongly criticized by some medievalists specializing in the history of philosophy, theology, library history and manuscripts. As far as James of Venice is concerned, there is no indication that he ever came to Mont Saint Michel, nor that translations were made there (some manuscripts containing translations that Gougenheim attributes to James of Venice are in fact copies of those made in Italy by Burgundio of Pisa).

See also

• Latin translations of the 12th century
• Logica nova

External links

• Works by James of Venice at Gallica