William of Moerbeke, O.P. (; ; 1215–35 – 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. Biography 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 Nicaea 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) and met the Latin translator Vitellius who dedicated to him the Latin optical treatise Perspectiva (also named Opticae libri decem). Subsequently, Moerbeke moved towards to Orvieto in 1272, and appeared at the Council of Lyons (1274). Then, from 1278 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. He was associated with the philosopher Thomas Aquinas, the mathematician John Campanus, the Silesian naturalist and physician Witelo, and the astronomer Henri Bate of Mechlin, who dedicated to William his treatise on the astrolabe. A little Greek village, Merbaka, with an exceptional late-13th-century church, is believed to have been named for him; it lies between Argos and Mycenae. Translations At the request of Aquinas, so it is assumed—the source document is not clear—he undertook a complete translation of the works of Aristotle directly from the Greek or, for some portions, a revision of existing translations. The reason for the request was that many of the copies of Aristotle in Latin then in circulation had originated in Spain (see Toledo School of Translators), from Arabic whose texts in turn had often passed through Syriac versions rather than being translated from