COSTANTINO AFRICANO. - A Carthaginian Benedictine, converted from Islam, translator of Arabic and Greek works, d. 1087. He travelled through the East and Egypt for 39 years. In 1060 he went to Salerno, whence he proceeded to Montecassino, where he professed the Benedictine rule.
According to Wüstenfeld, the following is the list of his translations: Liber completus artis medicinae qui dicitur regalis dispositio or Pantegni by 'Ali Ibn 'Abbâs (d. 994); Viaticum by Abû Ga'far Ahmad Ibn al-Gazâr (d. 1004); Liber diotiorum and Liber experimentorum by the Arab ar-Râzi (d. 923); Liber diaetarum universalium et particularium, Liber urinarum, Liber febrinum, Liber de gradibus by Isbâa Isrâ'îli. Finally, several works by Hippocrates and Galen. The translations of C. A. exerted considerable influence on the school of Salerno and subsequently on that of Chartres, and for many scholastics they were almost the sole manual of anatomy and physiology. These versions introduced into the West the study of the physiological concomitant of knowledge. The works of C. A. were published at Lyons in 1515 and at Basel in 1539.