# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robert the Englishman (fl.1143)

​ROBERT the Englishman, Robert de Kettene, or Robert de Retines (fl. 1143), first translator of the Koran, is called in most of the manuscripts either ‘Ketenensis’ or ‘Retenensis,’ but there are met with wilder orthographies, such as ‘Cataneus’ and ‘Robertus Cuccator seu Kethenensis Anglus.’ It is not known what English place-name lurks under these Latin forms. Wright doubts whether ‘Retinensis’ is to be interpreted as ‘of Reading.’ In the fourteenth century there was a ‘John de Ketene,’ bishop of Ely (Cat. of Cotton. MSS. p. 205 A). Robert is said by Leland to have travelled through France, Italy, Dalmatia, and Greece into Asia, where he learnt Arabic; but for these wanderings Leland offers no authority. He was probably settled in Barcelona by July 1136, under the auspices of the great Italian scholar and translator from the Arabic, Plato of Tivoli (Cotton. MS. App. vi. ff. 109 a, 195–6). By 1141–1143 he was living in Spain ‘near the Ebro’ with a friend ‘Hermann the Dalmatian,’ for the purpose of studying astrology. He doubtless sojourned at Leon, where Hermann was established about this time. Subsequently Robert became archdeacon of Pampeluna. In 1141 Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluni (d. 1156), and the greatest controversialist of his age, hired the services of ‘Rober Retinensis’ of England and his comrade, Hermann of Dalmatia, to translate certain Arabic works into Latin (Migne, pp. 649–50, cf. p. 671). Four translations prepared by Robert and Hermann were given to the world in one volume, with a preface from the pen of Peter the Venerable. Of the four works in this volume, which afterwards formed materials for Peter the Venerable's ‘Treatise against Mohammedanism,’ Robert translated a ‘Chronica mendosa et ridiculosa Saracenorum,’ i.e. an account of Mahomet's ancestry and life, together with a history of the early caliphs down to the death of Yazid I and the murder of Hosein, 10 April 680 A.D. (Seld. MS. fol. 4 b; Melanchthon, p. 7; Migne, pp. 657–61), and a translation of the Koran, with a preface by the translator addressed to Peter the Venerable (Seld. MS. ​f. 28 a to end of book; Mel. pp. 7–188; cf. Migne, pp. 649–71). Both Peter of Toledo and Peter [of Poitiers] claim in a colophon to have had a share either in this last work or the whole volume (Seld. MS. f. 196 a); but Robert explicitly states that he himself finished the translation of the Koran between 16 July and 31 Dec. 1143. Shortly afterwards the work was introduced into England by St. Bernard. On the way some chapters were lost, and Peter of Poitiers had to be applied to for a second copy, which he sent after making certain additions.
In the introductory letter to his translation of the Koran, Robert de Ketenes, after declaring that his controversial labours on the Koran are only an interlude in his proper study of astronomy or astrology, records a solemn vow to God that, when once he has finished the task in hand, he will devote himself to his life's work, a treatise on mathematical astronomy and astrology—a work which shall include in itself the sum of all knowledge. Whether he fully carried out this ambitious programme is uncertain; but we probably have at least two translations from the Arabic which he intended to work up into his projected encyclopædia. One of these translations is a version from Arabic into Latin of Ptolemy's ‘Planisphere,’ which Hermann finished at Toulouse on 1 June 1143 (or, according to another manuscript, 1144). He speaks of Robert in the dedication in terms suggesting that he had a hand in the work. The second probable contribution to Robert's encyclopædia is the translation (also from the Arabic into Latin) of Al Kind's great astrological treatise ‘De Judiciis Astrorum.’ This translation is certainly from the pen of a ‘Robertus Anglicus,’ whom one manuscript identifies with ‘Robert de Ketene,’ and, although dated in two other manuscripts 1272, may, on good internal evidence, be assigned to Robert de Retines [see under Robert Anglicus, fl. 1326)].
Many other works may be ascribed to Robert de Ketene. The introductory letter to Hermann of Dalmatia's version of Albumasar's ‘Introductiones in Astrologiam’ shows that the translator (Hermann) was assisted by the advice of ‘Robert,’ his ‘special and inseparable comrade; his peerless partner in every deed and art’ (Corpus Christi Coll. MS., Oxford, f. 60). Another letter, written about the same time (printed in 1489), declares plainly that Robert translated Albategni's ‘Astronomical Tables’ from the Arabic into Latin, and hints that he helped in translating a work by Mohammed ben Musa the Khorismian (Steinschneider, Hebr. Uebers. pp. 566, &c.; Albert, pp. 391, &c.; Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, xviii. 171, &c.).
Several manuscripts still preserve a translation of Albategni's ‘Tables’ made ‘for the meridian of London’ by ‘Robertus Cestrensis’ apparently about the middle of the twelfth century (Albert, pp. 391–3, &c.; cf. Cat. of Ashmol. MSS. No. 361); while the same ‘Robertus Cestrensis’ figures in other manuscripts as the translator of Mohammed ben Musa's ‘Algebra’ in 1185. This, being a Spanish date, probably refers to the Spanish era, and is thus equivalent to 1147 A.D. (Albert, pp. 391–3). This ‘Robertus Cestrensis’ can hardly be other than the ‘Robertus Cestiensis’ who made a translation of Ptolemy's ‘De Compositione Astrolabii’ ‘in the city of London in the year of the Æra 1185,’ i.e. in 1147 A.D. (ib.; cf. Smith, Cat. p. 12), and the ‘Robertus Castrensis’ who, on 11 Feb. 1182 (i.e. 11 Feb. 1144), finished a translation of the curious hermetic work of ‘Morien,’ ‘De Compositione Alchemiæ’ (Manget, i. 509–10), from the Arabic into Latin. In all these cases ‘Castrensis,’ ‘Cestrensis,’ ‘Cestiensis’ may very well be misreadings for ‘Katenensis’ or ‘Kethenensis;’ and as the early translators from the Arabic constantly used the Spanish era for their chronology this would give a series of dates from 1144 to 1147 quite in accordance with the known facts of Robert de Ketene's life. Pits's statement that the latter died and was buried at Pampeluna in 1143 is an obvious guess.
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