On 7 May 2015 the new Gerardo de Cremona Prizes (http://www NULL.ceatl NULL.eu/new-award-for-stimulating-translation-between-the-north-and-the-south-of-the-mediterranean) for the promotion of translation in the Mediterranean were launched by the School of Translators of Toledo (University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain), the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Human Sciences and Islamic Studies (Casablanca, Morocco), the MED 21 Programme – Network Awards for promotion of Excellence and Cooperation in the Mediterranean, and the City Council of Cremona (Italy). The aim of these prizes is to honor annually the significant contributions in the field of translation (practice, teaching, critiques, research, and reflection) of one individual and one institution from countries in the north and south of the Mediterranean.
This month the first prizes have been awarded. The individual awards went to the translators Malika Embarek (Spain) and Saleh Almani (Syria). The institutional prizes were awarded to the literary institution Next Page Foundation, based in Bulgaria, and to the School of Translation and Interpreting at the St. Joseph University of Beirut (Lebanon).
The award ceremony took place on 11 November 2015 in Teatro de Rojas (Toledo, Spain).
(http://www NULL.ceatl NULL.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Gerardo-de-Cremona_nov15 NULL.jpg)Award ceremony in Toledo
The patron of the award, Gerardo de Cremona (c. 1114 – 1187), was an Italian philosopher whose search for Greco-Latin and Arabic knowledge in the libraries of Al-Andalus, led him to Toledo, where he devoted himself to study and translation. His more than 70 translations of works about medicine, astronomy, mathematics, or philosophy turned him into the paradigm of the translation movement that made possible the transfer of Greek, Arabic, Indian, and Persian cultures from the East to the West.