Ebook: Translating Humanism in Quattrocento Italy

The Italian Quattrocento is recognised as the period 'par excellence' for the production of manuscripts in Latin translation. As a consequence, relatively few vernacular translators have been brought to scholarly attention. This book celebrates the many voices of Quattrocento translators by examining their self-presentation in prefaces and dedicatory letters. It highlights the vitality of a culture of translation that was inseparable from humanist values, and that connected different city states and courts across the Italian peninsula (Florence and Naples, but also Perugia, Salerno and Milan, among others). By analysing the translators' self-fashioning statements and perceptions of their role, as well as their accounts of their work, this study reveals the intensely collaborative nature of translative practice in the fifteenth-century. Latin and vernacular translators worked together to serve and please a broad readership that was eager to benefit from the humanist passion for ancient knowledge. This study collapses the perceived divide between Latin and vernacular humanisms, and offers a fresh understanding of Quattrocento Italy as a period of immense dynamism and creativity in the history of translation.