GERARD OF CREMONA, 1114-1187, was the greatest of the early translators of Arabic works into Latin. He traveled to Toledo with the specific purpose of learning Arabic in order to translate Ptolemy's Almagest and other works not available in the Latin West into Latin. He was the most prolific of translators from Arabic into Latin, with the help of a Spanish Christian named Galippus. At Toledo Gerard found a wealth of Arabic works and worked diligently to translate them. He translated books in every field, and the catalogue of his translations is quite substantial, especially on astronomy, astrology, and alchemy. He translated a number of scientific writings of Aristotle, but the longest list is medical. As Haskins points out, most of Arabic science in general passed into the West at the hands of Gerard of Cremona.

Among his translations are the Kitab al-Medjisti or The Book of Almagest in 1175, which was widely circulated; al-Khwarizmi's Hisab al-Djabr wa' l-Mukabala with the Latin title al-Goritmi de numero indorum or The Book of Addition and Subtraction; Aristotle's Meteorologica (Meteorology), De caelo et mundo (On the Heavens), Physica (Physics), and Analytica Posteriora (Posterior Analytics); the Toledan Tables, also called the Alfonsine Tables, done for Alfonso the Wise of Castile c. 1272; Ibn-Sina's Qanun; the Kitab al-tibb al Mansuri (an encyclopedia of medicine) of Razis with the title Liber almansoris; and a medical compilation of Yahaya ibn-Sarafyun as Practica sine breviarum, which was very popular during the period. [Argus²: Aristotile: Arsechiele: Avycen: Ptholome: Razis: Serapion]