What Europe obtained through Moslem sources which it prized most, though, was the commentary on Aristotle by Averroës and the works of Aristotle (R. 88). The list of the books of Aristotle in use in the mediaeval universities by 1300 (R. 87) reveals the great importance of the additions made. By the middle of the twelfth century Aristotle's _Ethics_, _Metaphysics_, _Physics_, and _Psychology_, as well as some of his minor works, had been translated into Latin and were beginning to be made available for study. The translation route through which these works had been derived was a roundabout one--Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Castilian, Latin--and hence the translations could not be very accurate, but they sufficed for the needs of Europe until the original Greek versions were recovered when the Venetians and Crusaders took and sacked Constantinople, in 1204. These were then translated directly into the Latin. Western Europe also was ready to use the Arabic (Hindu) system of notation, the elements of algebra, Euclid's geometry, and Ptolemy's work on the motion of the heavens. These contributions western Europe was ready for; the larger scientific knowledge of the Saracens, their pharmacopoeias, dictionaries, cyclopaedias, histories, and biographies, it was not yet ready to receive. One other influence crept in from these peoples which was of large future importance--the music and light literature and love songs of Spain. There had been developed in this sunny land a life of light gayety, chivalrous gallantry, elegant courtesies, and poetic and musical charm, and this gradually found its way across the Pyrenees. At first it affected Provence and Languedoc, in southern France, then Sicily and Italy, and finally the gay contagion of lute and mandolin and love songs spread throughout all western Europe. A race of troubadours and minnesingers arose, singing in the vernacular, traveling about the country, and being entertained in castle halls. Lordlyng listneth to my tale Which is merryr than the nightengale won admission at any castle gate. "Out of these genial but not orthodox beginnings the polite literature of modern Europe arose." II. THE RISE OF SCHOLASTIC THEOLOGY