John of Antioch (translator)

He translated Cicero, Boethius, the Otia imperialia and possibly the rule of the Knights Hospitaller.

His original writing consists of an epilogue to Cicero and some additional chapters appended to the Otia.

[5] At the request of fellow Hospitaller William of Santo Stefano,[a] John translated Cicero's De inventione and the anonymous Rhetorica ad Herennium.

The treatise on logic consists of excerpts from Boethius' De topicis differentiis, most likely translated but probably not selected by John.

Although doubt has been cast on the identity of this person with John, the Chantilly manuscript refers to the translator of the Rectorique as "Johan d’Anthioche, que l'en apele de Harens" ("who is called Harent") and there is no reason to doubt that they are one and the same.

[9] The influence of Brunetto Latini's Livres dou trésor is apparent in John's addenda to the Otia.

These contain references to Emperor Frederick II and King Manfred of Sicily, and permit John to extend Gervase's list of rulers of the Holy Roman Empire down to his own time.

[18] Although the ad verbum (by word) and ad sensum (by sense) distinction was ancient, John's phrase maniere de parler (manner of speaking) has an exact equivalent in Philip of Tripoli's prologue to his translation of the Arabic Secret of Secrets into Latin, which was made in Outremer and where Philip speaks of the differing loquendi modus (way of speaking) between Arabic and Latin.