'The fruits, not the roots': Translating Technologies in Early Modern Europe
By Courtney Roby
Hero of Alexandria, usually dated to the first century CE, produced treatises on an astonishing range of technical topics, from Euclidean geometry to the design and construction of theatrical automata. His frequently-stated mission as an author was to take the best of what previous authors had done, add innovations of his own, and integrate the old and new into treatises designed for maximum utility.
Dialoguing with a Satirist: Lucian, Thomas More, and the Visibility of the Translator
By Anna Peterson
Neither Nasty nor Brutish, but Short: Thomas Hobbes’ Abbreviated Translation of Aristotle’s Rhetoric
By Charles McNamara
In England, the seventeenth century was marked by an interest in the problems surrounding epistemology, from Francis Bacon’s Advancement of Learning in 1605 to John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1689. Even if we might think of English authors of this period strictly as empiricist reformers, they nevertheless looked to the rhetorical texts of antiquity for inspiration. This double interest can be seen clearly in Thomas Hobbes’ compressed English translation of Aristotle’s Rhetoric.
The Economics of Translating Virgil: a Prospectus
By Susanna Braund
Reading Virgil was an expensive proposition from the earliest times. So much is clear from the lavishly illustrated fifth century 'codex Romanus' (Vat. Lat. 3867) down to William Morris' stunning collaboration with Edward Burne-Jones on a de luxe illustrated manuscript of the Aeneid (1873-75). The same applies to translations of Virgil.
Tacitus in Italy: Between Language and Politics
By Salvador Bartera
After the discovery of the first Medicean manuscript, which contained Annals 1-6, Tacitus became extremely popular in Europe, receiving numerous editions and Latin commentaries. It was especially Lipsius’ edition (1574), and his subsequent commentary on the Annals, that can be singled out as the most influential edition of Tacitus in early modern Europe. Although Lipsius’ work was mainly philological, it is undeniable that one can already detect in Lipsius a certain “political reading” that was soon to become dominant among readers and commentators.