Philip of Tripoli, sometimes Philippus Tripolitanus^[1] or Philip of Foligno^[2] (fl. 1218–1269), was an Italian Catholic priest and translator. Although he had a markedly successful clerical career, his most enduring legacy is his translation of the complete Pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum secretorum from Arabic into Latin around 1230.

Little is known of Philip's origins and early life. He seems to have received a good education, specializing in law. His career was divided between various appointments in the Holy Land, where he spent most of the 1220s and late 1250s, and service to the Papacy. He was a canon of Antioch by 1222. In 1225, he briefly held the castle of Cursat. In 1227 he was made a canon of Tripoli and in 1238 of Byblos. In 1238 he served as apostolic legate in Frankish Greece. In 1248 he exchanged his canonry in Byblos for another in Tyre and added an archdeaconry in Sidon to his portfolio.

Philip won a disputed election to the archdiocese of Tyre during the vacancy of 1244–1250, but declined to accept it. He took up a cantorship at Tyre in 1250 instead. In 1251 he was made a papal chaplain, an office he held until his death. In 1266–1267 he was deputy apostolic legate in the Kingdom of Sicily. In 1267 he accepted an archdeaconry at Tripoli. He served the cardinals during the papal election of 1268–1271, being appointed an auditor general in 1269. He died not long after.

Around 1230, Philip translated the complete Pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum secretorum from Arabic into Latin.^[11] There is evidence for the existence of his translation from the 1230s or 1240s at the latest.^[4] In the prologue of his translation, Philip describes how he was on a visit to Antioch with his bishop, Guy of Valence, when a manuscript of the Arabic Secretum was discovered there. At Guy's urging, he translated it into Latin. He dedicated it to the bishop.^[20] It is a "remarkably close and accurate" translation. Nonetheless, the only reference in the papal registers to Philip's literary abilities is Innocent IV's praise of him as scientia litterarum.^[15]

Describing his method of translation in the prologue, Philip writes, "I have translated ... sometimes literally, and sometimes according to the sense, since there is one way of speaking among the Arabs and another among the Latins".^[11] The later Old French translator John of Antioch, also active in the Holy Land, may have been influenced by Philip's prologue.^[11]

Over 200 manuscripts of Philip's translation survive from the 13th through 16th centuries. It was the first complete translation from Arabic, although the medical portions had been translated a century earlier by John of Seville, whose translation Philip utilized in his own. Roger Bacon edited and wrote a commentary on Philip's translation between 1243 and 1254, but Michael Scot in his Liber physiognomiae between 1228 and 1236 seems to have used the original Arabic version.^[15]

A late medieval copy of the Book on the Inspections of Urine made for the Emperor Frederick II in 1212 attributes it to Philip of Tripoli and Gerard of Cremona. By that time, Philip's reputation was high and was associated with medicine. Some modern scholars have also suggested that he had training in medicine because he owned a copy of John of Seville's translation of the medical chapters and he was credited with helping his uncle during his illness.^[21][22] Another medical treatise, Experimenta notes minime reprobanda, is sometimes ascribed to Philip, but this is a modern misattribution. It is anonymous in all manuscripts but one, which attributes it to Thomas of Cantimpré.^[22]