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John of Antioch, also known as Harent of Antioch, was a 13th-century
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
writer of
Outremer The Crusader States, also known as Outremer, were four Catholic realms in the Middle East that lasted from 1098 to 1291. These feudal polities were created by the Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade through conquest and political int ...
who made important translations from
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
. He translated
Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
,
Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, ''magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the tr ...
, the ''
Otia imperialia ''Otia Imperialia'' ("Recreation for an Emperor") is an early 13th-century encyclopedic work, the best known work of Gervase of Tilbury. It is an example of speculum literature. Also known as the "Book of Marvels", it primarily concerns the three ...
'' and possibly the rule of the
Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...
. His original writing consists of an epilogue to Cicero and some additional chapters appended to the ''Otia''.


Life

John was born in
Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου, ''Antiókheia hē epì Oróntou'', Learned ; also Syrian Antioch) grc-koi, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου; or Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπ ...
to a family of western European origin. There is no evidence that he ever attended university. He lived in Antioch before its conquest by the Mamlūks in 1268, after which he moved to
Acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...
. He was attached to the
Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...
, probably as a priest at the main hospital in Acre. Some Italianisms in his translations suggest that his first language was
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
rather than French.


Works

At the request of fellow Hospitaller
William of Santo Stefano William of Santo Stefano, in Italian Guglielmo di Santo Stefano ( fl. –1303), was an Italian nobleman, historian and patron of letters. He was an active member of the Knights Hospitaller in Outremer, northern Italy and Cyprus, where he was comman ...
, John translated
Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
's ''
De inventione ''De Inventione'' is a handbook for orators that Cicero composed when he was still a young man. Quintilian tells us that Cicero considered the work rendered obsolete by his later writings. Originally four books in all, only two have survived into ...
'' and the anonymous ''
Rhetorica ad Herennium The ''Rhetorica ad Herennium'' (''Rhetoric for Herennius''), formerly attributed to Cicero or Cornificius, but in fact of unknown authorship, sometimes ascribed to an unnamed doctor, is the oldest surviving Latin book on rhetoric, dating from th ...
''. At the time these works were considered two parts of a singular work of Cicero's on
rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
. John's translation thus came under the title ''Rectorique de Marc Tulles Cyceron''. It was completed at Acre in 1282. The manuscript presented to William—now Chantilly,
Musée Condé The Musée Condé – in English, the Condé Museum – is a French museum located inside the Château de Chantilly in Chantilly, Oise, 40 km north of Paris. In 1897, Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale, son of Louis Philippe I, bequeathed the c ...
, MS fr. 433 (590)—also contains a preface, an epilogue on the methodology of translation and a treatise on
logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...
. These parts may also have been completed at Acre in 1282 or perhaps a little later in
Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
. The preface and the treatise on logic are in a different hand from the rest of the manuscript, which is probably in John's hand. The epilogue was written by John (and thus probably at Acre in 1282). The treatise on logic consists of excerpts from
Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, ''magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the tr ...
' ''De topicis differentiis'', most likely translated but probably not selected by John. John also translated
Gervase of Tilbury Gervase of Tilbury ( la, Gervasius Tilberiensis; 1150–1220) was an English canon lawyer, statesman and cleric. He enjoyed the favour of Henry II of England and later of Henry's grandson, Emperor Otto IV, for whom he wrote his best known work, t ...
's ''
Otia imperialia ''Otia Imperialia'' ("Recreation for an Emperor") is an early 13th-century encyclopedic work, the best known work of Gervase of Tilbury. It is an example of speculum literature. Also known as the "Book of Marvels", it primarily concerns the three ...
'' from Latin into Old French. This translation, now in Paris,
Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...
, MS fr. 9113, is ascribed to "''maystre Harent d'Antioche''". Although doubt has been cast on the identity of this person with John, the Chantilly manuscript refers to the translator of the ''Rectorique'' as "''Johan d’Anthioche, que l'en apele de Harens''" ("who is called Harent") and there is no reason to doubt that they are one and the same. To Gervase's ''Otia'' he added five chapters of original material in Old French. In these he provides some of the best evidence that he was a man of the church, including several accounts of miracles.
Gaston Paris Bruno Paulin Gaston Paris (; 9 August 1839 – 5 March 1903) was a French literary historian, philologist, and scholar specialized in Romance studies and medieval French literature. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901, 19 ...
placed the production of the translation of the ''Otia'' at Acre before 1287, and in one place precisely in 1285, but it is not certain it was made at Acre. The influence of Brunetto Latini's ''Livres dou trésor'' is apparent in John's addenda to the ''Otia''. These five additional chapters rely heavily on chapters 82–98 of the first book of Brunetto's ''Trésor'' as completed after 1266. These contain references to Emperor Frederick II and King
Manfred of Sicily Manfred ( scn, Manfredi di Sicilia; 123226 February 1266) was the last King of Sicily from the Hohenstaufen dynasty, reigning from 1258 until his death. The natural son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, Manfred became regent over th ...
, and permit John to extend Gervase's list of rulers of the
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
down to his own time. John may also be behind the Old French translation of the Hospitaller rule and of certain documents from the Hospitaller archives in Acre initiated by William of Santo Stefano and undertaken between 1278 and 1283.


Methodology

John's translations were pioneering. Only about ten Old French translations of classical writers are known down to John's time. His ''Rectorique'' may be among the two or three earliest true translations, rather than adaptations, from Latin into Old French. It was the first such translation on rhetoric other than a few passages of Brunetto Latini's ''Trésor''. The translation of ''De topicis differentiis'' is "one of the first vernacular uropeantexts in logic". The significance of this translation lies in the fact that leading contemporary opinion, as expressed by no less than
Roger Bacon Roger Bacon (; la, Rogerus or ', also '' Rogerus''; ), also known by the scholastic accolade ''Doctor Mirabilis'', was a medieval English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empiri ...
, was that logic could not be adequately expressed in vernacular languages. Indeed, John had to create new words to translate Boethius, such as ''entimeme'' for
enthymeme An enthymeme ( el, ἐνθύμημα, ''enthýmēma'') is a form of rational appeal, or deductive argument. It is also known as a rhetorical syllogism and is used in oratorical practice. While the syllogism is used in dialectic, or the art of logi ...
, a word not otherwise attested in medieval French. In his epilogue on translation, John describes the difference between translating by word and by sense:
... the manner of speaking in Latin is not generally the same as that of French. Neither the properties of words nor the methods of arranging arguments and words in Latin are the same as those of French. And that is ogenerally in every language. Because every language has its own properties and its manner of speaking. ... For that reason it was useful for the translator of this science to translate sometimes word for word, and sometimes and more frequently sentence for sentence, and sometimes because of the great obscurity of a sentence to add to it and lengthen it.
Although the ''ad verbum'' (by word) and ''ad sensum'' (by sense) distinction was ancient, John's phrase ''maniere de parler'' (manner of speaking) has an exact equivalent in
Philip of Tripoli Philip of Tripoli, sometimes Philippus Tripolitanus or Philip of Foligno ( fl. 1218–1269), was an Italian Catholic priest and translator. Although he had a markedly successful clerical career, his most enduring legacy is his translation of the c ...
's prologue to his translation of the
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
'' Secret of Secrets'' into Latin, which was made in Outremer and where Philip speaks of the differing ''loquendi modus'' (way of speaking) between Arabic and Latin. Some of John's emendations that appear in the ''Rectorique'' suggest the influence of Donatus.


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{refend People from Antioch 13th-century Roman Catholic priests 13th-century French writers 13th-century translators Latin–French translators People of the Crusader states Knights Hospitaller