Philip of Tripoli

Although he had a markedly successful clerical career, his most enduring legacy is his translation of the complete Pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum secretorum from Arabic into Latin around 1230.

In papal documents, he is regularly referred to as a magister (master), a title which indicates that he had received a higher education, probably but not necessarily a university degree.

[3] At least one 13th-century manuscript of the Secretum refers to its translator as magister philosophorum ("a master of philosophers"), and his language regarding Aristotle in the prologue suggests that he had some formal education in philosophy.

Some possible interpolations in the text of the Secretum in defence of astrology have been attributed to Philip, and a correction to its astronomy was almost certainly made by him.

[5][6] Throughout his career, he was a pluralist, which had only been permitted under canon law since the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, when an exception was carved out for "learned persons".

[7] During his time in the Holy Land Philip seems to have picked up French, the lingua franca of the Crusader states, to judge by some gallicisms in his translation.

When Rainier returned to Italy that year, he gave his nephew charge of the castle and fief of Cursat (Quṣayr), where the patriarchal treasury was located.

[9] Philip was tasked with preventing the castle and treasure from falling into the hands of the cash-strapped Prince Bohemond IV of Antioch.

Pope Honorius III wrote to Philip ordering him to hand the castle over to the proper representatives of the patriarchate during its vacancy.

[9] Philip was still in east in 1227, when Pope Gregory IX granted him a canonry at Tripoli for his services to his late uncle.

He is described as having survived the perils of sea travel and the loss of property in the line of duty while serving Rainier.

His uncle's successor, Albert of Rizzato, requested his return to Antioch, but the pope gave him a dispensation to hold his benefices in absentia.

The number of canonries attached to the Tripolitan cathedral had been reduced from eighteen to twelve in 1212 owing to the shrunken resources of the diocese.

The practice of papal provision of canonries could easily lead to situations like Philip's, in which numerous expectative canons were waiting at any time to receive an actual benefice.

On 11 September 1245, Philip was in Genoa as the nuntius (envoy) of Patriarch Robert of Jerusalem and archbishop of Nazareth to take possession of some relics they had purchased.

In 1248, Innocent IV, acting with the advice of Cardinal Pietro da Collemezzo, nevertheless confirmed him in the archdeaconry of Sidon to which he had been appointed and ordered the patriarch of Jerusalem and the bishop of Lydda to undo whatever action had been taken against Philip.

[16] In 1256, Pope Alexander IV sent Philip on a mission to the Holy Land: to restore property that rightfully belonged to the archdeacon of Tortosa.

He can also be traced in the Holy Land in 1257, when he took out a loan from the Hospitallers on behalf of his superior, Opizo Fieschi, Innocent IV's nephew and the bishop of Tripoli, to finance the latter's voyage overseas.

In April 1269, the cardinals sent him to recoup the castle of Lariano, usurped by a certain Riccardello, and they granted him the power to excommunicate in order to do it.

[4] In the prologue of his translation, Philip describes how he was on a visit to Antioch with his bishop, Guy of Valence, when a manuscript of the Arabic Secretum was discovered there.

Nonetheless, the only reference in the papal registers to Philip's literary abilities is Innocent IV's praise of him as scientia litterarum.

Roger Bacon edited and wrote a commentary on Philip's translation between 1243 and 1254, but Michael Scot in his Liber physiognomiae between 1228 and 1236 seems to have used the original Arabic version.

[15] A late medieval copy of the Book on the Inspections of Urine made for the Emperor Frederick II in 1212 attributes it to Philip of Tripoli and Gerard of Cremona.

Some modern scholars have also suggested that he had training in medicine because he owned a copy of John of Seville's translation of the medical chapters and he was credited with helping his uncle during his illness.