TransIt · Translating science in the long Italian Eighteenth-Century. The role of translators and publishers as “cultural mediators” (1760-1790s)
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-02-01 → 2019-01-31
- EU contribution
- €172,477
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Translating science in the long Italian Eighteenth-Century. The role of translators and publishers as “cultural mediators” (1760-1790s)
The research project ‘TransIt’ provides a multi and interdisciplinary examination of the production of translations in the Italian peninsula during the second half of the eighteenth century, considering the phenomenon as a significant – even if still very little known and studied – phase of transmission, dissemination and reception of scientific ideas and languages. In particular, it aims to reflect on both the role played by translators and publishers as cultural mediators and the idea that translations were not a simple quantitative indicator of the success of scientific books among a “general audience”, but rather a lens through which to analyse the quality of the dissemination and reception of European scientific culture in the Italian peninsula. At the same time, the project aims to develop a new theoretical and methodological perspective of analysis of translations that takes into account different disciplines (cultural and social history of translations, intellectual history, history of book and publishing, textual criticism and material bibliography). The overall objectives of the project are: 1)to select, collect and digitase a corpus of Italian translations of English and French scientific works and to analise this corpus exploring new methodological perspectives and focusing the attention on textual and paratextual strategies of adaptation; 2) to give a first, rigorous and exhaustive overview of the characteristics of Italian translations of scientific texts and of the translators’ policies, in order to both understand how important and radical were the cultural changes undergone by the original books, and facilitate a comparison with the strategies of translation characterizing other European contexts; 3) to reconstruct the circulation and dissemination of these books among different typologies of readers, especially among “common readers”; 4) to complete and enhance Fellow’s formation and research methodology, helping her to develop an independent and international career and reach a complete professional maturity.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
During the second half of eighteenth-century, the Italian peninsula was involved in the so-called “reading revolution”, a process characterized by an important increase of the number and diversification of the interests of the public. Professors, students, members of technical-administrative élites, but also a wider community of readers were significantly interested in Italian and foreign books, such as novels, scientific and technical manuals, travel literature or philosophical and historical works. In particular, scientific publications coming from other European countries significantly attracted the attention of readers having a strong professional interest or a simple curiosity in medical science, agronomy or natural sciences. The largest part of these texts was available to “common” readers – who knew only their own language – mainly through translations, that – as numerous scholars have highlighted – should be conceived not only as linguistic activities, but also as cultural practices. Starting from this final assumption and trying to combine different approaches (cultural history of translations, history of publishing, study of cultural transfers), the project TransIt aims to give a contribution to our understanding of the processes of circulation and reception of scientific ideas in Italy during the Enlightenment, by examining a specific corpus of translations of English and French works, and, especially, the role played by translators and publishers. The study of translations – and of translators’ and publishers’ policies in particular – is an useful tool to investigate the ways in which ideas were re-elaborated and assimilated in new cultural, social and political contexts. Translators and publishers acted as authentic “cultural mediators”, always very attentive to satisfy public’s demands, by adopting different textual and paratextual strategies aimed at adapting the new foreign scientific theories and languages for the new readers’ taste and knowledge.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE · FiesoleCoordinatorItaly
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union