Gilbertus Anglicus | Page 5

field of his medical activities are
equally unknown. Bale, Pits and Leland, the earliest English
biographers, tell us that Gilbert, after the completion of his studies in
England, proceeded to the Continent to enlarge his education, and
finally became physician to the great Justiciar, Hubert Walter,
archbishop of Canterbury, who died in the year 1205. This would place
him under the reign of King John, in the early part of the thirteenth
century.
Dr. John Freind, however, the famous English physician and medical

historian (1725), observing that Gilbert quotes the Arabian philosopher
Averroës (who died in 1198), and believing that he also quotes a work
of Roger Bacon and the surgical writings of Theodorius (Borgognoni)
of Cervia (1266), was inclined to fix his period in the latter half of the
thirteenth century, probably under the reign of Edward I. Most of the
later historians of medicine have followed the views of Freind. Thus
Eloy adopts the date 1272, Sprengel gives 1290, Haeser the same date,
Hirsch says Gilbert lived towards the close of the thirteenth century,
Baas adopts the figures 1290, etc.
The most recent biographers of Gilbert, however, Mr. C.L.
Kingsford[1], and the late Dr. Joseph Frank Payne[2], after an
apparently careful and independent investigation of his life, have
reached conclusions which vary materially from each other and from
those of the historians mentioned. Mr. Kingsford fixes the date of
Gilbert at about 1250, while Dr. Payne reverts to the views of Bale and
Pits and suggests as approximate figures for the birth and death of
Gilbert the years 1170-80 to 1230. This discrepancy of twenty-five or
thirty years between the views of two competent and unprejudiced
investigators, as a mere question of erudition and interpretation, is
perhaps scarcely worthy of prolonged discussion. But as both
biographers argue from substantially the same data, the arguments
reveal so many interesting and pertinent facts, and the numerous
difficulties attending the interpretation of these facts, that some
comparison of the different views of the biographers and some
criticism of their varying conclusions may not be unwelcome.
[Footnote 1: In Leslie Stephen's "Dictionary of Biography."]
[Footnote 2: British Medical Journal, Nov. 12, 1904, p. 1282.]
In the first place then we must say that, as Gilbert is frequently quoted
in the "Thesaurus Pauperum," a work ascribed to Petrus Hispanus, who
(under the title Pope John XXI) died in 1277, this date determines
definitely the latest period to which the Compendium can be referred.
If, as held by some historians, the "Thesaurus" is the work of Julian, the
father of Petrus, the Compendium can be referred to an earlier date
only.

Now Gilbert in his Compendium (f. 259a) refers to the writings of
Averroës (Ibn Roschd) regarding the color of the iris of the eye.
Averroës died in the year 1198. There is no pretense that Gilbert was
familiar with the Arabic tongue, and the earliest translations into Latin
of the writings of Averroës are ascribed by Bacon to the famous
Michael Scot, though Bacon says they were chiefly the work of a
certain Jew named Andrew, who made the translations for Scot. Bacon
also says that these translations were made "nostris temporibus," in our
time, a loose expression, which may, perhaps, be fairly interpreted to
include the period 1230-1250. But if, as Dr. Payne believes, Gilbert
died about 1230, it seems improbable that he could have been familiar
with the translations of Michael Scot. Accordingly Dr. Payne suggests
that, after the death of his patron in 1205, Gilbert returned to the
Continent, and, perhaps in Paris or at Montpellier, met with earlier
Latin versions of the writings of the Arabian physician and philosopher.
This is, of course, possible, but there is no historical warrant for the
hypothesis, which must, for the present at least, be regarded as merely a
happy conjecture of Dr. Payne. The presence of Gilbert upon the
Continent, probably as a teacher of reputation, seems, however, quite
probable. Littre has even unearthed the fact that during the 14th century
a street in Paris near the medical schools, bore the name of the Rue
Gilbert l'Anglois. A MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale entitled
"_Experimenta Magistri Gilliberti, Cancellarii Montepessulani_" has
suggested also the idea that Gilbert may have been at one time
chancellor of the University of Montpellier. Dr. P. Pansier, of Avignon,
however, who has carefully examined and published this manuscript[3],
reports that while it contains some formulae found also in the
Compendium of Gilbert, it contains many others from apparently other
sources, and he was unable to convince himself that the compilation
was in fact the work of Gilbertus Anglicus. Dr. Pansier also furnishes
us with a list of the chancellors of Montpellier, which contains the
name of a certain "Gillibertus," chancellor of the university in 1250. He
could find, however, no