Herman of Carinthia—who in his own account was born in "central Istria" circa 1100, then part of the Duchy of Carinthia—had most likely attended a Benedictine monastic school in Istria before going on to study in France.
It was probably in France that Herman's attention had been drawn to the classical texts that were becoming available via Arabic sources.
This is before the time of the first university in France, but at Chartres he had attended one of the cathedral schools that are the predecessors of universities; he also studied in Paris in the 1130s.
The teachers at the school of Chartres, known for its interests in Christian platonism and the natural sciences, include Thierry of Chartres, to whom Herman is to dedicate a translation in 1143.
One of Herman's fellow students in France had been Robert of Ketton, with whom he had traveled for four years in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Both men had become translators from the Arabic.
At Constantinople and Damascus, Herman had taken note of the Arabic science of the period.
Returning to Europe around 1138, he and is active as a scholar in Spain (an important country for translations from the Arabic) and southern France.
A huge part of his work remains anonymous.
Herman's first known translation is the sixth book of an astrological treatise, Liber sextus astronomie, by the Jewish writer Sahl ibn Bishr, released in Spain in 1138 under the title Zaelis fatidica (Prophecy).
Sahl ibn Bishr had been writing in the Greek astrological tradition.
Ibn Bishr's first five books are preserved in the translation of John of Seville (Johannes Hispanus) (circa 1090 – circa 1150).
The sixth book deals with three thematic topics regarding the influences on the world and its inhabitants.
The work contains divinations based on the movements of the planets and comets.
