[8][9] It is believed that he left England toward the end of the 11th century for Tours,[6] likely on the advice of Bishop John de Villula, who had moved the seat of his bishopric from Wells to Bath in 1090.

[4] Adelard also reports extensive travel throughout the "lands of the Crusades": Greece, West Asia, Sicily, possibly Spain, Tarsus, Antioch, and potentially Palestine.

[13] By 1126, Adelard returned to the West with the intention of spreading the knowledge he had gained about Arab astronomy and geometry to the Latin world.

[4] This time of remarkable transition and crusade marked an opportunity for someone to gain valuable influence over the evolution of human history.

While the Crusades offered little in the way of a victor, Adelard's non-discriminatory scholarly work inspired him to bring back to England many ancient texts and new questions that would later give rise to an English Renaissance.

As printing had not been introduced and the literacy rate was very low, books were rare in medieval Europe, usually held only by royal courts or Catholic monastic communities (Kraye, et al. 1987).

[14] Among Adelard of Bath's original works is a trio of dialogues, written to mimic the Platonic style, or correspondences with his nephew.

[4] The work takes the form of a dramatic dialogue between Philocosmia, who advocates worldly pleasures, and Philosophia, whose defence of scholarship leads into a summary of the seven liberal arts.

[15] Questiones Naturales appears to have been an immediate success as it was copied on both sides of the English Channel and was even presented in a "pocket-book" format, suggesting that it was meant to be carried around.

He wrote a treatise on the use of the abacus called Regulae Abaci,[23] which was likely written very early in his career because it shows no trace of Arab influence.

[4] In the Middle Ages he was known for his rediscovery and teaching of geometry, earning his reputation when he made the first full translation of Euclid's "Elements" and began the process of interpreting the text for a Western audience.

While his original writings demonstrate a sincere passion for the seven liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, geometry, music, and astronomy), his work in Quaestiones naturales illustrated a more encompassing dedication to subjects such as physics, the natural sciences, and metaphysics.

His influence is evident in De philosophia mundi by William of Conches,[27] in the work of Hugh of Saint Victor, in Isaac of Stella's Letters to Alcher on the Soul and in Peter Abelard's Hexaemeron.

[6] Adelard displayed original thought of a scientific bent, questioning the shape of the Earth (he believed it was round) and asking how it remains stationary in space.