Many of the translators of the period were Jews, and many of the works
were translated from Hebrew into Latin. For years Arabic had been the
learned language of the Jews, and in a large measure it was through them
that the Arabic knowledge and the translations passed into South and
Central Europe.
The Arab writer whose influence on mediaeval thought was the most
profound was Averroes, the great commentator on Aristotle.
THE RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES
THE most striking intellectual phenomenon of the thirteenth century is
the rise of the universities. The story of their foundation is fully
stated in Rashdall's great work (Universities of Europe in the Middle
Ages, Oxford, 1895). Monastic and collegiate schools, seats of learning
like Salernum, student guilds as at Bologna, had tried to meet the
educational needs of the age. The word "university" literally means
an association, and was not at first restricted to learned bodies. The
origin appears to have been in certain guilds of students formed for
mutual protection associated at some place specially favorable for
study--the attraction generally being a famous teacher. The University
of Bologna grew up about guilds formed by students of law, and at
Paris, early in the twelfth century, there were communities of teachers,
chiefly in philosophy and theology.
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