by Lucio Russo
The modern “scientific revolution”, which is considered usually as having its roots in the 17th century, actually continued to develop without interruption after the revival of scientific studies in Europe during the so-called “twelfth century Rebirth” making substantial progress during the Renaissance period. The essential role played by translators during this very long process is exemplified by the case of the Latin mathematical lexicon. It has been demonstrated that the lexicon as such, which still exists in modern scientific language with very few changes, was almost inexistent in ancient times and was created during the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, and was not the work of mathematicians but of creative translators