John of Seville (Latin: Johannes Hispalensis or Johannes Hispaniensis) (fl. 1133-53) was one of the main translators from Arabic into Castilian in partnership with Dominicus Gundissalinus during the early days of the Toledo School of Translators. John of Seville translated a litany of Arabic astrological works in addition to being credited with the production of several original works in Latin. Life and Context John of Seville was a baptized Jew, whose Jewish name (now unknown) has been corrupted into "Avendeut", "Avendehut", "Avendar" or "Aven Daud". This evolved into the middle name "David", so that, as a native of Toledo, he is frequently referred to as Johannes (David) Toletanus. However, Avendehut's translations typically translated Arabic text into Spanish vernacular. John of Seville was capable of translating Arabic directly into Latin, creating a distinction between himself and Avendehut. Some historians argue that in fact there were two different persons with a similar name, one as Juan Hispano (Ibn Dawud) and other as Juan Hispalense, this last one perhaps working at Galician Limia (Ourense), for he signed himself as "Johannes Hispalensis atque Limiensis", during the Reconquista, the Christian campaign to regain the Iberian Peninsula. Though his precise birthdate and death date remain unknown, he is known to have flourished in his work from 1133 to 1153.His date of death is sometimes placed around 1157, but this remains an uncertainty. Translated and Original works Since John of Seville had gone by multiple names throughout his lifetime, it is often debated by historians as to which translations of this time period were actually his. The topics of his translated works were mainly astrological, in addition to astronomical, philosophical and medical. John of Seville's particular style of translation is recognized by scholars due to his proclivity to translate works, word for word, while continuing to maintain the original language's syntax and grammatical structure. Astrological and Astronomical John of Seville translated Al-Farghani's Kitab Usul 'ilm al-nujum ("Book on the Elements of the Science of Astronomy") into Latin in 1135 ('era MCLXXIII') under the revised title of The Rudiments of Astronomy, as well as the Arab astrologer Albohali's "Book of Birth" into Latin in 1153. This also includes the work to translate another one of Al-Farghani’s works titled Kitāb fī Jawāmiʿ ʿIlm al-Nujūm ("Elements of astronomy on the celestial motions"). He also translated Kitāb taḥāwīl sinī al-‘ālam ("Flowers of Abu Ma'shar") by Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi into Latin. More