GIOVANNI, Aben D'Abut (Iohannes Hispanus). — Medieval translator, often confused with G. of Seville (v.). His name is associated with the translation of the philosophical works of Avicenna, carried out in collaboration with Domingo Gundisalvo, around the middle of the 12th century, in Toledo.
He was a Jew, but there is no evidence that he became a Christian. Above all, the bold conjecture of Fr. Alonso, who identifies him as bishop of Segovia in 1149 and then of Toledo, where he would have died in 1166, as well as the author of the treatise *De anima* attributed by Albert the Great to John, archbishop of Toledo (*Sum. theol.*, 2°, tr. 12, q. 73), seems entirely unfounded.
Bibl.: H. Bedoret, *Les premières versions tolérances de philosophie*, in *Rev. néosol. de philos.*, 41 (1938), pp. 390-91; A. G. Palencia, *El arzobispo don Raimundo de Toledo*, Barcelona 1942, p. 122; M. Alonso, *Notas sobre los traductores toledanos Domingo Gundisalvo y Juan Hispano*, in *al-Andalus*, 8 (1943), pp. 155-188; G. Théry, *Tolède grande ville de la renaissance médiévale*, Oran 1944, pp. 127-49.