Dominicus Gundissalinus

Abstract

Dominicus Gundissalinus (or Gundisalvi), Spanish Domingo Gundisalvo, c. 1110–1190, Archdeacon of Cuéllar (in the Diocese of Segovia), is the most prominent representative of the so-called “Toledan School of Translators.” Not only did he translate over twenty philosophical tracts from Arabic into Latin, including works of al-Kindī, al-Fārābī, Avicenna, Ibn Gabirol, and al-Ġazālī, he also authored five philosophical works: Tractatus de anima, De immortalitate animae, De unitate et uno, De processione mundi, and De divisione philosophiae. Relying on Arabic as well as Latin sources, these works represent original, and often pioneering, contributions to the history of psychology (as the first instance of a Latin reception of Avicennian psychology), ontology, and metaphysics (with the introduction of the term “metaphysica” to the Latin West), as well as epistemology (giving up the traditional ordo scientiarum, i.e., the scheme of the Liberal arts, in favor of an Aristotelian division of the sciences). In particular, his theory of knowledge and science, which is built around important elements from Aristotelian epistemology, was very influential in the Paris Arts faculty during the thirteenth century, and was taken up by, among others, Arnulfus Provincialis, Robert Kilwardby, and Remigio dei Girolami. Some of Gundissalinus’ works were translated into Hebrew.