A physician from Tunis, he was originally a merchant, who apparently visited Salerno. In Salerno, he came in contact with some physician and became interested in medicine, he then returned to Africa and studied medicine.
According to his own story, during which time he acquired thirty years travelling in Egypt and the East during which time he acquired many medical and other works.
At the end of the 11th century Constantinus Africanus assembled a school translators who help bring the philosophical medicine back into the Latin-speaking world.
Constantinus’s translation of Arabic medical texts into Latin gave the west a number of important works. These formed the foundation of modern science and biology. He was a much cited authority from the twelve until sixteenth century and his translations were widely circulated.
Chief of these was the surgical part of Kitab al-Maliki (The Royal Book) of Ali ibn al-Abbas, which Stephen of Antioch translated as Regalis disposition.
These writings in Latin formed the basis of the curriculum of the School of Salerno, the first medical university in the West.
Constantinus Africanus (1010 – 1087)
The most popular posts
-
Paulus Orosius, a Spanish presbyter from Braga, is best known for his History Against the Pagans in seven books written in 416/7 AD. He liv...
-
Claudius Ptolemy was born around 100 AD., probably in Alexandria but possibly in Hermiou in Upper Egypt. He was a mathematician, astronomer ...
-
Abū Bakr ibn Muḥammad ibn al Ḥusayn al-Karajī was a Persian mathematician and engineer. He made a great contribution to algebra by first tre...
-
Brahmagupta is a renowned astronomer and mathematician of the seventh century. It was he who taught the Arabs astronomy before they became a...
-
Antisthenes was Greek philosopher and a disciple of Socrates. He was the son of an Athenian citizen, also name Antisthenes; his mother was a...