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SCIENCE 5 8i
on alchemy to appear in Latin, by a certain Morienus; he also
translated Al/Khwarizmi's fundamental treatise on Algebra, a
work by Alkindi on astrology, and some important astrono/
mical tables, recalculated for the meridian ofLondon. Another
English astronomer, Roger ofHereford, wrote in 1 176 a Com/
potus and later some astronomical treatises, including an
adaptation ofsome Arabic tables for the meridian ofHereford.
A contemporary, Daniel of Morley, describes how he aban/
doned his studies in Paris, finding it dominated by law and
pretentious ignorance, and went to Toledo to learn of Arabic
science at the most famous Christian centre. There he was
taught by Gerard of Cremona, distinguished translator of
Ptolemy's Almagest and of several of Aristotle's works; from
the number of translations attributed to Gerard, he was un/
doubtedly the head ofa school oftranslators. Daniel expounded
his Toledan knowledge in a work written for Bishop John of
Norwich. Also probably connected with Hereford and with
Spain was Alfred of Sareshel, who, sometime before 1200,
translated from the Arabic the pseudo/ Aristotelian De Plantis,
a Greek work written in the first century B.C. which provided
the middle ages with most of its botanical theory. Alfred's
commentary on De Plantis and still more his De Motu Cordis,
written early in the thirteenth century for the medical profession,
are among the earliest Latin works showing some detailed
knowledge of Aristotle's natural science, as they do also of
Hippocrates, Galen, and Arabic medicine.
The turn ofthe twelfth century in fact marked an important
change in the content ofLatin science. Ever since contempor/
aries ofAdelard ofBath had made a renewed study of Plato's
Timeus (ofwhich the first 53 chapters were available in Chalx
cidius's Latin
translation) an essential part of the revival of
learning at Chartres, giving to this cathedral school the intel/
lectual
leadership of the west until the rise of Paris and the
universities, this work ofPlato's had provided the main frame/
work for a conception ofthe physical world. Adelard himself
shows its influence, citing, for example, in Questiones Natoraks,
a long extract from the Timaeus on the physiology ofvision and,