Lecture 3
Translation in medieval
Europe
Translation in medieval Europe.
 1.
 2.
 3.
 4.
Translation
Translation
Translation
Translation
in
in
in
in
medieval
medieval
medieval
medieval
England.
Italy.
Spain.
France.
Translation in medieval England
Writing came to
Anglo-Saxon
England with the
conversion to
Christianity,
which started in
597.
Translation in medieval England
Before King Alfred, literary
activity was mostly in Latin.
King Alfred was the most
famous king of Wessex
(871–99). He preserved
sovereignty of the English
crown in the time of
Scandinavian invasion.
King Alfred was a translator
and the initiator of a policy
of translation and
vernacular education.
Translation in medieval England
Alfred began his project of translation
with Gregory’s Pastoral Care, to
educate and guide his bishops so that
they could, in turn, educate the
people.
Translation in medieval England
In his preface to Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care,
Alfred writes about the importance of
translation in general and particularly for
his own people, who no longer understood
Latin. He points out that the circulation of
such work in English would encourage
literacy
and
strengthen
the
English
language.
Translation in medieval England
King Alfred’s preface to Pope Gregory's
Pastoral Care – for self-study
Translation in medieval England
Alfred chose for translation books which in his
opinion were most needful for all people to
know, among them Boethius’ Consolation of
Philosophy, Augustine’s Soliloquies, and the
first fifty Psalms.
Alfred's Book of Laws, or Dooms, attempted to
combine
Mosaic
law
with
Christian
principles and old Germanic customs, so it
contained a translation of Mosaic law.
Translation in medieval England
Alfred himself learned Latin when he
was nearly 40.
He translated sometimes word for word,
sometimes freely, as he wrote himself
in his prefaces, and to each of his
translations he added his own
commentary.
Translation in medieval England
The Benedictine monk Aelfric (955-?1010),
Abbot of Eynsham (a monastery in
Oxfordshire), translated Lives of the Saints
and Homilies into Old English, accompanied
by prefaces that set out his intention to
make his language simple and clear for
common people with very little education.
Translation in medieval England
Aelfric also began a paraphrase of parts
of the Old Testament, but unwillingly,
as
he
feared
that
its
wider
dissemination
might
lead
the
uneducated to believe that the
practices of the Ancient Israelites
were still acceptable for Christians.
Translation in medieval England
In the preface to his translation of
Genesis Ælfric argues that biblical
translation carries special risks both
because of the divinely appointed
nature of the text and because of the
text’s significance for its Christian
audience.
Translation in medieval England
In this preface, Ælfric attempts to show the
danger of naively literal readings of the
Bible. The surface narrative may be simple,
he suggests, but it requires interpretation
in light of the Old Testament’s anticipation
of the New Testament.
Linguistic sense (naked narrative) and
ultimate meaning (spiritual meaning) are
not the same.
Translation in medieval England
Ælfric’s Preface to his translation of
Genesis – for self-study
Translation in medieval England
Aelfric was also the author of a Latin
grammar
and
a
Latin-English
dictionary which was the first of its
kind.
Aelfric's translation of Grammar is
considered the first vernacular Latin
grammar in medieval Europe.
Translation in medieval England
Roger Bacon
(1214-1294),
English philosopher,
scientist and
cleric
Translation in medieval England
According to Bacon, a translator should
know thoroughly the language he is
translating from, the language into
which he is translating, and the
subject of the book.
Translation in medieval England

De linguarum cognitio ("On the Knowledge of Languages)
(1267)
The Holy Scriptures have been translated from Greek and
Hebrew and philosophy has been translated from Arabic
as well from those two languages. Yet it is impossible to
preserve the distinctive features of one language in
another since even idiomatic expressions in the same
language tend to differ among its speakers, as is obvious
in French... What is considered correct among Picardians
tends to fill the Burgundians with horror, and the
Parisians too, because they are close to them. If this
happens inside one language imagine the extent to
which it happens between different languages.
Translation in medieval England
 De linguarum cognitio ("On the Knowledge of
Languages) (1267)
Consequently, what is well said in one language, cannot
possibly be transferred into another in the same
way... Whoever knows a discipline, such as logic or
any other, well and tries to translate it into his mother
tongue will discover that mother tongue lacking in
both substance and words. Therefore no reader of
Latin will be able to understand the wisdom contained
in philosophy and the Holy Scriptures as well as he
should, unless he also knows the languages they have
been translated from.
Translation in medieval England
John of Trevisa (1326–1412) was
a scholar and translator of the
Polychronicon of Ranulph Higden
(1387) and the 19-volume treatise on
natural sciences De Proprietatibus
Rerum ("On the Properties of Things")
(1398) of Bartholomew de Glanville.
Translation in medieval England
Dialogue between a Lord and a
Clerk upon Translation, from
Trevisa’s Translation of
Higden’s Polychronicon – for selfstudy
Translation in medieval England
Geoffrey Chaucer
(1340-1400)
Translation in medieval England
After Norman Conquest of 1066, the official
language of the country was French and
Latin was the language of church and
science.
In the 14th century, however, English began
to take its place as the official language. It
was introduced into schools, courts and the
parliament.
Chaucer symbolized the re-establishment of
English as a national language.
Translation in medieval England
Chaucer was familiar with classical and
vernacular literature in at least three
languages: Latin, French and Italian.
He adapted many works from French, notably
the Romaunt of the Rose.
Chaucer also translated works by Ovid, Virgil
and Boethius from Latin and Boccaccio from
Italian.
Chaucer translated freely, making additions
where he thought necessary.
Translation in medieval England
For Chaucer, as for other early vernacular
writers, there was an overlap between
translation, compilation, rewriting and
original authorship.
Translation was understood as re-creation.
Chaucer's metaphor of translation was
ploughing old fields to produce new corn.
Translation in medieval England
Writing literature in English, Chaucer
showed the artistic potential of his
native language, rather than French
or Latin.
Even in his Treatise on the Astrolabe, a
scientific essay, Chaucer made a
deliberate choice to use English rather
than Latin.
Translation in medieval England
Chaucer laid the
foundations for
narrative poetry and
imported many genres
into England, among
them the ballade, the
romance and the
fabliau.
Translation in medieval Italy
The earliest written document in an Italian
vernacular is a translation from Latin of a
legal document required by the Longobard
bureaucracy for estate ownership records:
a judge of Capua, in 960, wrote down the
formula in words other than those of
standard Latin for the witnesses who
evidently could no longer understand Latin.
Translation in medieval Italy
This type of translation continued for a
long time and stopped only when
administrative
practices
were
completely taken over by the rising
middle class.
Day-to-day legal activities required a
massive use of interpreting in order
to convey to the people the complex
content of laws written in Latin.
Translation in medieval Italy
In the 11th century numerous
translations
of
medical
works
were
done
by
Constantine the African
(1020-1087).
He was a Muslim scholar from
Tunisia whose translations
of Arabic texts influenced
European medical teaching
for centuries.
Translation in medieval Italy
Constantine had knowledge of Greek,
Babylonian and Indian medicine as well
as Islamic.
A book collector, he travelled to Salerno in
Italy, possibly as early as 1065.
Encouraged by the local archbishop, he
began to translate his extensive
collection of medical texts from Arabic
into Latin. Over the next 20 years he
continued to translate Arabic books
and encyclopedias and taught medicine
at the Salerno school. He also
translated
Arabic
editions
of
Hippocrates and Galen, reintroducing
their works to Europe.
Translation in medieval Italy
The first systematic
written translations in
the vernacular
appeared towards the
middle of the 13th
century in the Law
Schools in Bologna
and Florence.
Translation in medieval Italy
Cicero's works were among the earliest
examples of classical Latin texts translated
into regional dialects with the intent of
raising the quality of the vernacular
through imitating Latin style and language
patterns. This habit became very popular
and produced numerous translations of
rhetoric and philosophy texts.
Translation in medieval Italy
At
the same time, entertainment
literature such as the Arthurian
legends and other narrative sources
were translated from French into
northern Italian dialects.
Translation in medieval Italy
Among the learned translators working in
Italian universities there was a great
awareness of the theoretical problems
connected with translation.
For example, Bartolomeo da San Concordio
(1262-1347) in his Teachings of the
Ancients argues that "in listening and in
reading we shall attend more to the
meaning than to the words".
Translation in medieval Italy
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), following
the
accepted
medieval
notion,
strongly asserted the impossibility of
poetical translation. His Convivio
(1304-1308) contains the first Italian
reference
to
the
theory
of
translation: "Anything harmonized
through the bond of the Muses
cannot be transmuted from its idiom
into another without losing all its
sweetness and harmony".
Translation in medieval Italy
Dante himself often tried his hand at
translating Latin or Provençal poets
into
the
Florentine
dialect
for
inclusion in his works.
The same practice was followed by
Boccaccio and Petrarch.
Translation in medieval Spain
In the 12th-13th centuries flourishing
translation activity took place in Spain,
mainly around Toledo.
Translation in medieval Spain
The so called School of Toledo played an
important role in the transmission of
knowledge to medieval Europe.
The translation activity was centred on the
philosophical and scientific works of the
Greek and Arab world – in the fields of
medicine, mathematics, astronomy and
astrology, in particular.
Translation in medieval Spain
In the 12th century, translations were
essentially from Arabic to Latin,
whereas in the 13th century they
were from Arabic into the Spanish
vernacular.
Translation in medieval Spain
The translators of that period radically
changed the state of knowledge in
the West. The Western world became
acquainted with the Arabic system of
numeration, algebra, the Ptolemaic
world system, and an important body
of
Greek
and
Arabic
medical
knowledge.
Translation in medieval Spain
The translation activity of Toledo School
took place in the situation of a
striking imbalance between the state
of knowledge in the source culture
(Arab Spain) and the receiving
culture (Spain of the Reconquest).
Translation in medieval Spain
In the 12th century it was essential for
translators to be associated with the
Church. Those who did not convert to
Christianity were employed as mere
intermediaries whose role was to
provide an oral version of Arabic texts
in the vernacular.
Translation in medieval Spain
The approach to translation – the extent to
which it was constructive and creative depended largely on the translator's
position in the power structure.
In the 12th c. translators acted on behalf of
the Church. Latin as the language of the
Church and of scholarship was chosen as
the target language.
Translation in medieval Spain
The main task of the translators was to
improve their own knowledge, not to
communicate information.
Translation in medieval Spain
In the 13th century translators served a
secular patron.
The Castilian monarch Alfonso X (12211284), a deeply religious patron of
learning, exercised control over
translation in his time.
Translation in medieval Spain
Translators adapted the texts they worked on.
In the 12th c. formal changes were made in accordance
with Latin conventions of presenting information.
Certain historical and geographical references specific
to the Arab tradition were considered irrelevant and
were omitted.
In the 13th c., changes in the text had to do with the
important task of creating and defining terminology.
The way in which translators approached original texts
was influenced by the religious and political context
and ill-defined concept of intellectual property.
Translation in medieval Spain
The difference between translation and creation is well
seen in the works of Adelard of Bath, one of the best
known Latin scholars of the time.
His
translations resembled rough versions, working
documents intended for the translator himself or for
specialists, probably students, while his own original
works were more polished.
Translation from Arabic into Latin was used by the
scholars as a means to exchange information among
themselves, rather than to popularize knowledge.
Translation in medieval Spain
Gerard of Cremona's Latin translation of
the Arabic version of Ptolemy’s
Almagest made in 1175 formed the
basis for Western astronomy until the
theories of Copernicus.
Translation in medieval Spain
Gerard of Cremona translated 87 books
from the Arabic language, including
Ptolemy's Almagest,
Archimedes' On the Measurement of
the Circle,
Aristotle's On the Heavens, and
Euclid's Elements of Geometry.
Translation in medieval Spain
In the 13th century, greater emphasis was
placed on dissemination of knowledge. This
was connected with changes in the practice
of translation and its subdivision into
separate functions (primary translators
distinct from assistants, for example).
Prefaces often emphasized the value of
vernacular texts for the learned people.
Translation in medieval Spain
Thus, if in the 12th century the task of
translators
in
Spain
was
to
incorporate foreign knowledge into a
Latin framework, in the 13th century
they forged Spanish national culture
on the basis of the storehouse of
knowledge.
Translation in medieval France
The first translations into Old French did
not appear until the 13th c. Before
then, translation was carried out in
Latin and mostly in monasteries.
The first documents written in Old
French are literal translations of Latin
liturgical texts of the 9th c.
Translation in medieval France
Under the reign of King Charles V the Wise
(1337-1380), translation of classical works
was actively encouraged.
Charles V built a library in the Louvre and
filled it with about 1,000 manuscripts; then
he hired ten translators who were
generously rewarded for their work.
Translation in medieval France
Latin versions of Aristotle's works were
retranslated into French by the king's
tutor and advisor Nicolas Oresme
(1330-1382), one of the main
translators at the court of Charles V.
Translation in medieval France
Oresme produced several scientific translations and
introduced hundreds of new terms into French.
He also made interesting comments in the prefaces to his
translations on such issues as the task of the
translator, the need for accuracy and the introduction
of new terms into the target language.
He pointed out the role of Roman translators in the
transmission of Greek knowledge and emphasized the
benefits of making this knowledge accessible in
French.
Translation in medieval France
Translators of scientific works into French not
only created new words, they helped to
popularize
knowledge
and
make
it
accessible to readers.
The neologisms were accompanied by glosses,
or explanations. They also used the
technique of word pairs in order to convey
the full meaning of some Latin or Greek
terms, e.g. sain et sauf 'safe and sound'.