William of Moerbeke

William of Moerbeke, O.P. (Dutch: Willem van Moerbeke; Latin: Gulielmus de Moerbecum; 1215-35 – c. 1286), was a prolific medieval translator of philosophical, medical, and scientific texts from Greek language into Latin, enabled by the period of Latin rule of the Byzantine Empire. His translations were influential in his day, when few competing translations were available, and are still respected by modern scholars.

Moerbeke was Flemish by origin (his surname indicating an origin in Moerbeke near Geraardsbergen), and a Dominican by vocation. Little is known of his life. In the spring of 1260, he was at either Nicea, or Nicles, in the Peloponnese; in the autumn of the same year, he was at Thebes, where the Dominicans had been since 1253 and where he dated his translation of Aristotle's De partibus animalium.

In turn he resided at the pontifical court of Viterbo (with evidence for his residence here in 22 November 1267, May 1268, and 15 June 1271), was in Orvieto in 1272, and appeared at the Council of Lyons (1274). Then, from 1277 until his death in 1286 (which probably occurred several months before the nomination of his successor as bishop in October 1286) occupied the Latin Archbishopric of Corinth, a Catholic see established in the northeastern Peloponnese (Greece) after the Fourth Crusade. It is not clear how much time he actually spent in his see: documents show him on mission in Perugia for the Pope in 1283 and dictating his will there.

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