- John of Seville
John of Seville (
Latin : Johannes Hispalensis or Johannes Hispaniensis) was a twelfth-century translator, perhaps however working at Galician Limia (Ourense ), for he signed himself "Johannes Hispalensis atque Limiensis", during theReconquista , the Christian campaign to regain theIberian Peninsula .His three translations, the "
Secretum Secretorum " dedicated to a Queen T [arasia?] , a tract ongout offered to one of the Popes Gregory, and the original version of the 9th century Arabic philosopherCosta Ben Luca 's "De differentia spiritus et animae", were all medical translations, intermixed withalchemy in the hispano-Arabic tradition. In his "Book of Algorithms on Practical Arithmetic", John of Seville provides one the earliest known descriptions of Indianpositional notation , whose introduction to Europe is usually associated with the book Liber Abaci byFibonacci ::“A number is a collection of units, and because the collection is infinite (for multiplication can continue indefinitely), the Indians ingeniously enclosed this infinite multiplicity within certain rules and limits so that infinity could be scientifically defined; these strict rules enabled them to pin down this subtle concept.”
External links
* [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/lup/bhs/2003/00000080/00000004/art00001 M. Robinson, "The History and Myths surrounding Johannes Hispalensis," in "Bulletin of Hispanic Studies" October 2003, vol. 80, no. 4, pp. 443-470] abstract
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