ll leisure for making
translations, Frederick granted him an annual income. Anatoli was a
friend of the Christian Michael Scot, and the latter made Latin
renderings from the former's Hebrew translations. In this way Christian
Europe was made familiar with Aristotle as interpreted by Averroes (Ibn
Roshd). Much later, the Jew Abraham de Balmes (1523) translated Averroes
directly from Arabic into Latin. In the early part of the fourteenth
century, Kalonymos, the son of Kalonymos, of Aries (born 1287),
translated various works into Latin.

From the thirteenth century onwards, Jews were industrious translators
of all the important masterpieces of scientific and philosophical
literature. Their zeal included the works of the Greek astronomers and
mathematicians, Ptolemy, Euclid, Archimedes, and many others. Alfonso X
commissioned several Jews to co-operate with the royal secretaries in
making new renderings of older Arabic works on astronomy. Long before
this, in 959, the monk Nicholas joined the Jew Chasdai in translating
Dioscorides. Most of the Jewish translators were, however, not
Spaniards, but Provencals and Italians. It is to them that we owe the
Hebrew translations of Galen and Hippocrates, on which Latin versions
were based.

The preceding details, mere drops from an ocean of similar facts, show
that the Jews were the mediators between Mohammedan and Christian
learning in the Middle Ages. According to Lecky, "the Jews were the
chief interpreters to Western Europe of Arabian learning." When it is
remembered that Arabian learning for a long time included the Greek, it
will be seen that Lecky ascribes to Jewish translators a role of the
first importance in the history of science. Roger Bacon (1214-1294) had
long before said a similar thing: "Michael Scot claimed the merit of
numerous translations. But it is certain that a Jew labored at them more
than he did. And so with the rest."

In what precedes, nothing has been said of the _original_ contributions
made by Jewish authors to scientific literature. Jews were active in
original research especially in astronomy, medicine, and mathematics.
Many Jewish writers famous as philosophers, Talmudists, or poets, were
also men of science. There are numerous Jewish works on the calendar, on
astronomical instruments and tables, on mathematics, on medicine, and
natural history. Some of their writers share the medieval belief in
astrology and magic. But it is noteworthy that Abrah