Dominicus Gundissalinus
12th-century Spanish translator and philosopher
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Born in Castile around 1115–1125, Gundissalinus received his education in Chartres, supposedly following the teaching of William of Conches and Thierry of Chartres. Since 1148, Gundissalinus is in Castile: the capitular archives of Segovia refer to him as archdeacon of Cuéllar, a small town not far from Segovia, where he presumably spent around 14 years, regarding which almost no information is available. Following Ibn Daud's request to the archbishop of Toledo, John II, to start a series of translations into Latin of Avicenna's Kitab al-Shifāʾ, Gundissalinus moved to Toledo in 1161–1162, where he worked with Ibn Daud on the translation of Avicenna's De anima, realised before 1166.
Gundissalinus remained in Toledo for twenty years, collaborating with Abraham Ibn Daud and Johannes Hispanus to the realisation of around twenty translations of Arabic works into Latin. In the Castilian capital, Gundissalinus also wrote his philosophical treatises. The Toledan chapter names Gundissalinus for the last time in 1178 but he presumably remained in Toledo at least until 1181, when a document written in Arabic mentions his name.
The last record witnessing Gundissalinus alive is the report of a meeting between the chapters of Segovia and Burgos, held in Segovia in 1190. It is probable that the last years of Gundissalinus's life were spent in that Castilian town, and he died sometime after 1190.
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Translations of Gundissalinus
Together with Avendauth, that is, Abraham ibn Daud, and Iohannes Hispanus, Gundissalinus translated around twenty philosophical works from Arabic to Latin, which decisively marked the passage from Platonism to Aristotelianism typical of Latin speculation of the 13th century. Translations traditionally attributed to Gundissalinus are:
Alexander of Aphrodisias, De intellectu et intellecto al-Farabi, De intellectu et intellecto al-Kindi, De intellectu Avicenna, De anima seu sextus naturalium Avicenna, De convenientia et differentia subiectorum al-Farabi, Exposición del V libro de los Elementa de Euclide pseudo al-Kindi, Liber introductorius in artem logicae pseudo al-Farabi, De ortu scientiarum Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, Liber de definitionibus Avicenna, Logica Avicenna, De universalibus Al-Ghazali, Logica Avicena, Liber de philosophia prima Avicena, Liber primus naturalium, tractatus primus Avicenna, Liber primus naturalium, tractatus secundus al-Ghazali, Metaphysica Avicebron, Fons vitae Pseudo-Avicena, Liber caeli et mundi al-Farabi, Liber exercitationis ad viam felicitatis al-Farabi, Fontes quaestionum Avicenna, Prologus discipuli et capitula Avicenna, De viribus cordis