(ca. 1017-1078), was a Byzantine philosopher, politician and historian. He combined Platonic philosophy with Christian doctrine and initiated a renewal of Byzantine classical learning that later influenced the Italian Renaissance. He also made contributions to Byzantine culture, such of a reform of the university curriculum to emphasize the Greek classics, like the Homeric literature that, with Platonist thought, he understood as precursory to Christian revelation. He composed various treatises and poetry, on themes in theology, philosophy, grammar, law, medicine, mathematics, and the natural sciences. Constantine the African (c. 1020–1087), a Christian native of Carthage, is best known for his translating of ancient Greek and Roman medical texts from Arabic into Latin while working at the Schola Medica Salernitana in Salerno, Italy. Among the works he translated were those of Hippocrates and Galen. Arzachel (1028–1087), the foremost astronomer of the early second millennium, lived in Al-Andalus and greatly expanded the understanding and accuracy of planetary models and terrestrial measurements used for navigation. He developed key technologies including the equatorium and universal latitude-independent astrolabe. Avempace (died 1138), a famous physicist from Al-Andalus who had an important influence on later physicists such as Galileo. He was the first to theorize the concept of a reaction force for every force exerted. Adelard of Bath (c. 1080 – c. 1152) was a 12th-century English scholar, known for his work in astronomy, astrology, philosophy and mathematics. Avenzoar (1091–1161), from Al-Andalus, introduced an experimental method in surgery, employing animal testing in order to experiment with surgical procedures before applying them to human patients. He also performed the earliest dissections and postmortem autopsies on both humans as well as animals. Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114 – 1187) was an Italian translator working at the court of Castile in Toledo, Spain and was a prominent figure in the Toledo School of Translators for translating Ptolemy's Almagest as well as Euclid's Elements from Arabic to Latin. Robert Grosseteste (1168–1253), Bishop of Lincoln, was the central character of the English intellectual movement in the first half of the 13th century and is considered the founder of scientific thought in Oxford. He had a great interest in the natural world and wrote texts on the mathematical sciences of optics, astronomy and geometry. In his commentaries on Aristotle's scientific works, he affirmed that experiments should be used in order to verify a theory, testing its consequences. Roger Bacon was influenced by his work