“De interpretatione recta...”: Early Modern Theories of Translation

• Authors: Oana-Alis Zaharia
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Translation has been essential to the development of languages and cultures throughout the centuries, particularly in the early modern period when it became a cornerstone of the process of transition from Latin to vernacular productions, in such countries as France, Italy, England and Spain. This process was accompanied by a growing interest in defining the rules and features of the practice of translation. The present article aims to examine the principles that underlay the highly intertextual early modern translation theory by considering its classical sources and development. It focuses on subjects that were constantly reiterated in any discussion about translation: the debate concerning the best methods of translation, the sense-for-sense/ word-for-word dichotomy - a topos that can be traced to the discourse on translation initiated by Cicero and Horace and was further developed by the Church fathers, notably St. Jerome, and eventually inherited by both medieval and Renaissance translators. Furthermore, it looks at the differences and continuities that characterise the medieval and Renaissance discourses on translation with a focus on the transition from the medieval, free manner of translation to the humanist, philological one.

Keywords

EN

translation studies; early modern theory of translation; classical translation theory; literal/ word-for-word translation; sense-forsense translation; medieval vs. humanist translation

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: American, British and Canadian Studies Journal
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 5-24

Dates

published

2014-12-01

online

2015-02-06

Contributors

author

Oana-Alis Zaharia

References

• Binns, J.W. Intellectual Culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: The Latin Writings of the Age. Leeds: Cairns, 1990. Print.
• Bruni, Leonardo. “On the Correct Way to Translate.” Translation/History/ Culture: A Sourcebook. Ed. André Lefevere. London: Routledge, 1992. 81-85. Print.
• Burke, Edmund. “Leonardo Bruni.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Appleton, 1908: n.p. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
• Burke, Peter, and Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia, eds. Cultural Translation in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print.
• Cicero, Tullius. De finibus bonorum et malorum. Trans. H. Rackham. London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1914. Print.
• - - -. “De Oratore.” Translation/History/Culture: A Sourcebook. Ed. André Lefevere. London: Routledge, 1992. 46. Print.
• Copeland, Rita. Rhetoric, Hermeneutics and Translation in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1991. Print.
• Copenhaver, Brian P. “Translation, Terminology and Style in Philosophical Discourse.” The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy. 6th ed. Eds. Charles B. Schmitt and Quentin Skinner. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. 75-110. Print.
• Cummings, Robert. “Recent Studies in English Translation, c. 1520-c. 1590.” English Literary Renaissance 37:2. English Literary Renaissance, 2007. 274-316. Print.
• Delabastita, Dirk. “‘If I know the letters and the language’: Translation as a Dramatic Device in Shakespeare’s Plays.” Shakespeare and the Language of Translation. Ed. Ton Hoenselaars. London: Thomson, 2004. 31-52. Print.
• Dolet, Etienne. “The Way to Translate Well from One Language to Another.” Translation Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader. Eds. Daniel Weissbort and Astradur Eysteinsson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002. 73-77. Print.
• Erasmus, Desiderius. “Letter to WilliamWarham.” Translation/History/Culture: A Sourcebook. Ed. André Lefevere. London: Routledge, 1992. 60. Print.
• Hermans, Theo. “Renaissance Translation between Literalism and Imitation.” Geschichte, System, Literarische Übersetzung / Histories, Systems, Literary Translations. Ed. Harald Kittel. Berlin: Schmidt, 1992. 95-116. Print.
• - - -. “The Task of The Translator in the European Renaissance: Explorations in a Discursive Field.” Translating Literature. Ed. Susan Bassnett. Cambridge: Brewer, 1997. 14-40. Print.
• Holland, Philemon. “The Preface to the Reader.” Translation/History/Culture: A Sourcebook. Ed. André Lefevere. London: Routledge, 1992. 22-24. Print.
• Horace. Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica. Trans. H. Rushton Fairclough. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1926. Print.
• Izora, Scott, and Paul Monroe. “Introduction.” Ciceronianus: or, A dialogue on the best style of speaking. By Erasmus. Ed. and trans. Scott Izora and Paul Monroe. New York: Columbia U, 1908. 5-16. Print.
• Lefevere, André, ed. Translation/History/Culture: A Sourcebook. London: Routledge, 1992. Print.
• Lloyd-Jones, Kenneth. “Erasmus, Dolet and the Politics of Translation.” The Politics of Translation in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Ottawa: U of Ottawa P, 2001. 37-56. Print.
• Morini, Massimiliano. Tudor Translation in Theory and Practice. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006. Print.
• Norton, G. P. The Ideology and Language of Translation in Renaissance France. Geneva: Droz, 1984. Print.
• Robinson, Douglas, ed. Western Translation Theory: From Herodotus to Nietzsche. Manchester: St. Jerome, 1997. Print.
• St. Jerome. “Letter 57, to Pammachius on the Best Method of Translating.” Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers. Vol. 6. Trans. W.H. Fremantle, G. Lewis and W.G. Martley. Ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature, 1893. Rev. and ed. Kevin Knight. New Advent. 2009. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.
• Summerfield, Thea, and Rosamund Allen. “Chronicles and Historical Narratives.” The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English, vol.1: To 1550. Ed. Roger Ellis. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. 332-63. Print.
• Vives, Juan Luis. “Versions or Translations.” Translation/History/Culture: A Sourcebook. Ed. André Lefevere. London: Routledge, 1992. 50-52. Print.
• Watson, Nicholas. “Theories of Translation.” The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English, vol.1: To 1550. Ed. Roger Ellis. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. 71-92. Print.
• Weissbort, Daniel, and Astradur Eysteinsson, eds. Translation: Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/abcsj-2014-0024