Versio latina: Actors, Functions and Objectives of Early Modern Translations into Latin

In context of the Priority Programme 2130 „Early Modern Translation Cultures (1450—1800)“ (https://www.spp2130.de) and Prof. Anja Wolkenhauer’s research project Versio latina  the actors, functions and objectives of translations into the Latin language will be investigated: For this purpose, the twelve case studies include a broader array of source languages and genres from 1500 to 1800, such as Commynes’ Memoires, Brant’s Narrenschiff, Camoe’s Os Lusíadas and Campanella’s La Città del Sole. Hereby, the different editions and translations will be collected and compiled into a data base. Taking into consideration their paratextual apparatuses, correspondence and documents related to the translation processes the cultural functions and economic objectives as well as the particulars of early modern translations into Neo-Latin will be contextualized and analyzed. Ultimately, this project aims to bring the ‘forgotten Latinitas’ back into focus, especially regarding its central importance for literature and book trade.

Botanics in the Making: Communication and Construction of the Botanical Science in 16th-century Europe

Emerging in early modern Europe, the forms, practices and affiliations of the botanical science had still to be negotiated. These debates took place particularly in what is generally seen as liminal part of the voluminous botanical print works—in their paratexts. Therefore, I bring the title pages, dedicatory letters, prefaces and dedicatory poems of a selected corpus into focus, starting with the first botanical print, the Herbarius Latinus (1484).

Contextualizing these works and analyzing them together with preserved traces of reading and usage found in remaining copies, makes it evident, that these sets of heterogenous small forms function as epistemic catalysts and platforms for debate and communication, fostering the construction of the botanical science and its community. Hereby, they simultaneously reflect on the practices of collecting, selecting and arranging botanical knowledge within the main texts, while being subjected to limitations of selection and reduction processes themselves, which are then again sometimes thwarted by the processes of accumulation. Link

Constructing History and Knowledge through Small Forms: Mapping Paratextual Strategies of 16th- and 17th-century Herbals
LBI Fellowship (Ludwig Boltzmann Institut for Neo-Latin Studies) 01.08.—15.10.2022 Link

Leaves in Florentine Libraries
Paul Oskar Kristeller Fellowship 2022 (Project Overview)

Paratexts in Early Modern Prints, 

Neo-Latin Literature, 

Translations into Neo-Latin, Early Modern Translation Cultures

History of Botany,  Scientific Texts

Soon to Be Published:

together with Anja Wolkenhauer. “Die Raumkonzepte frühneuzeitlicher Übersetzungen ins Lateinische, diskutiert am Beispiel von Tommaso Campanellas Civitas Solis”, in: Raumübersetzungen – Übersetzungsräume, Tagungsband (= Übersetzungskulturen der Frühen Neuzeit/ Early Modern Translation Cultures) ed. by Peter Burschel, Regina Toepfer and Jörg Wesche. Berlin, Heidelberg: J.B. Metzler (forthcoming, OA).

together with Moana Toteff and Anja Wolkenhauer. “Versio latina und der Catalogus versionum latinarum (CVlat)”, in: Early Modern Translation and the Digital Humanities, (= Übersetzungskulturen der Frühen Neuzeit / Early Modern Translation Cultures) eds. Hillary Brown, Regina Toepfer and Jörg Wesche, Berlin, Heidelberg: J.B. Metzler (forthcoming, OA).

2023                                      
“Paratextual Debates in De plantis (1583): On the Best Form of Botanical Prose, Garden and Things, and the Author-Figure of Cesalpino”, in: Andrea Cesalpino: An Aristotelian Natural Philosopher in the Renaissance, ed. by Fabrizio Baldassarri and Craig Martin, 153-169, London et al.: Bloomsbury Academic.

2023                                      
„Leaf: Preserving Knowledge, Constructing Histories“, in: Natural Things, Ecologies of Knowledge in the Early Modern World, ed. by Mackenzie Cooley, Anna Toledano and Dyugu Yıldırım, 265-290, London, New York: Routledge.

2022
„Hos Centones: Brunfelsʼ Herbarum vivae eicones (1530) and Contrafayt Krëutterbuch (1532)“, in: Cento-texts in the Making, Aesthetics and Poetics from Homer to Zong!, (= Bochumer Altertumswissenschaftliches Colloquium, Bd. 109) hg. von Manuel Baumbach, 63-88, Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.

2021
together with Hans-Joachim Pflüger and Helmut Kettenmann. De fabrica systematis nervosi evertebratorum. Die kommentierte Dissertation von / commented Thesis by Hermann Helmholtz. Darmstadt: WBG Academic.

2019
together with Urte Stobbe (Hrsg.). Kleine Formen für den Unterricht. (= Themenorientierte Literaturdidaktik, Bd. 2), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht unipress.

2019
„Conrad Gesners Historia animalium: Großes Werk und kleine Form im fächerübergreifenden Unterricht“, in: Kleine Formen für den Unterricht. (= Themenorientierte Literaturdidaktik, Bd. 2), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht unipress, 197–223.

12/11/2024

“'Weil die lateinischen Übersetzungen schlecht und unglaubwürdig sind': Zur Bedeutung lateinischer Intermediärübersetzungen oder ihres Fehlens für die botanischen Wissenschaftstexte der Frühen Neuzeit”, Villa Vigoni (Conferenze trilaterali di ricerca), Volkssprachliche Übersetzungen griechischer Werke ins Italienische, Französische und Deutsche im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert I (12/10-11/2024), Como

01/18/2024

"Translations and Re-Creations of Machiavellian Thought in Latin: Il principe (1513) and its Multiple Translation Processes" (Abstract), at Seminario "transLATINg testi letterari italiani in traduzione latina" (18.-19.01.2024), Sapienza Università di Roma, organized by Francesco Lucioli and supported by the Progetto Grande di Ateneo 2022

01/13/2024

"Unnötige (Rück)Übersetzungen? Machiavelli’s Il principe (1513) und die Übersetzung lateinischer Zitate ins Lateinische" (Abstract dt./frz.), at 43th Metageitnia (12.-13.01.2024; Program), Konstanz

09/13/2023

"'A Men's Affair'? Weibliche Akteure und die Übersetzung frühneuzeitlicher Literatur ins Lateinische" (" 'A Men's Affair'? Female Actors and the Translation of Early Modern Literature into Latin", Abstract here), SPP 2130, 5th Annual Conference: "Gender and Diversity in Early Modern Translation Cultures" (Program), 13th to 15th September, Burkardushaus, Universität Würzuburg.

05/22/2023; 06/29/2023

"'Aufgehängt in einem Winkel der Welt': Campanellas Selbstübersetzung und das Phänomen lateinischer Übersetzungen in der Frühen Neuzeit", on May 22, in the lecture series of the Lukian-Kolloquium at the Intstitut for for Classical Philology and Comparative Literature, Universität Leipzig, and on June 29 at the Institute for Classics, Medieval and Neo-Latin, University Vienna (Abstract here).

03/29/2023

"Strategien, Funktionen und Transformation des Endes in Sebastian Brants Narrenschiff (1494) durch die Übersetzung ins Lateinische und andere Sprachen", at the conference "Brüchige Finalität. Erzähl- und kulturhistorische Perspektiven auf das Ende in vormoderner Kleinepik" (find the progam here) taking place from March 29 to 31 in Göttingen.

01/13/2023

"Adpensa Mundi tinniens in angulo: Campanellas Selbstübersetzung und das Phänomen lateinischer Übersetzungen in der Frühen Neuzeit"  at 42nd Metageitnia (Jan 13-14, 2023), Universität Basel.

10/10/2022

"The Construction of History: Mapping Paratextual Strategies in Vernacular and Latin Printed Herbals (c. 1500-1700)", Final talk at Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies in context of her LBI-Fellowship.

09/14/2022

Heideklang/Wolkenhauer "Adpensa Mundi tinniens in angulo: Raumkonzepte frühneuzeitlicher Übersetzungen ins Lateinische", at the 4th annual conference of SPP2130 "Translation Spaces - Spaces in Translation" (09/14-09/16/2022).

02/26/2022                                            
„Paratextual Debates in De plantis (1583): On the Best Form of Botanical Prose, Garden and Things, and the Author-Figure of Cesalpino” (virtually)
Andrea Cesalpino: An Aristotelian Natural Philosopher in the Renaissance (towards the publication of the volume) (02/25-26/22), Ca’Foscari University of Venice& Indiana University Bloomington

09/30/2021                            
„Helmholtz’ Doktorarbeit und der Blick durch das Mikroskop“, Potsdam
Helmholtz-Feierstunde at Helmholtz-Gymnasium Potsdam, organized in collaboration with ProWissen Potsdam e.V. and Universität Potsdam

09/15/2021                            
„Sehen, Beobachten, Durchwandern: Helmholtz’ Sprache des Mikroskopierens“, Berlin
Helmholtz-Virchow-Dinner, Science Dinner at the Max-Delbrück-Center, Berlin

05/12/2021                            
„Botanics in the Making: Writing and Reading 16th-century Herbals” (vitually)
Guest talk at Ludwig Boltzmann Institut for Neo-Latin Studies, NOSCEMUS, Innsbruck

13/11/2020                            
„Literature and Practices of Collection: Brunfelsʼ Herbarum vivae eicones (1530) and Contrafayt Krëutterbuch (1532)“ (virtually)
Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Technique of Cento Texts, Universität Bochum

24/07/2019                            
„Traces of the Plant World: How to Read Botanical Prose“ Utrecht
HSS Annual Meeting (07/23-27/19), University of Utrecht

04/09/2019                            
„Writing Histories of (Medico-)Botanical Knowledge in 16th Century Europe: Mapping Paratextual Strategies“ Hamilton-College (NY, USA)
Natural Things Inaugural Conference „Collection & the History of Science in the Age of Global Empires“ (04/07-09/19), Hamilton College

07/06/2018                             
„Conrad Gesners Historia animalium: Großes Werk und kleine Formen im fächerübergreifenden Unterricht“, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Workshop „Kleine Formen für den Unterricht – Unterricht in kleinen Formen“ (Small Forms for School Education - Education through Small Forms) (07/04-06/2018) organized together with Sandra Dobritz

04/19/2018                            
„Botany Almost Lost – An Italian Paratextual Discourse on the Rescue and Meaning of Botanical Knowledge“, University of Kentucky, Lexington (KY, USA)
The Languages, Literatures and Culteres Conference (04/18-21/2018)

04/04/2018                            
„Der Humanist Conrad Gesner und seine Historia animalium im Latein- und Biologieunterricht“, Saarbrücken
together with Kristina Tyborski, Svenja Holper, Christin Hartwig und Sandra Berges; National Congress of Classics (Deutscher Altphilologenverband) „Polis Europa“ (04/02-07/2018)

The interdisciplinary science blog Übersetzungsgeschichte(n). Einblicke in die Übersetzungsforschung der Frühen Neuzeit aims to make current research more accessible to a broader public. We want to give our readers short insights into early modern translation cultures as well as into the day-to-day research with all its challenges done by historians of translation.The category artifacts uses objects as starting points for a short dive into translation processes; it shows the contingencies, rivalries, amusing incidents, and translation choices. Anecdotes focus on methodological questions drawn and made tangible by employing a short example from the vast array of early modern translation processes. In our interviews, we want to make the researchers themselves visible, showing different carrier paths and positions, research decisions, and processes of academic collaboration.

We will update the blog monthly either with posts written by the blog-team (Garda Elsherif, Enrica Fantino, Julia Heideklang, Jana Sauter-Späth) or by guest contributors.

The very first articles are now online! Curious? Start reading at https://traductio.hypotheses.org/

09/20-21/2024 International Workshop "Exchange Processes between Vernacular and Latin Drama in Early Modern Europe", DFG Project "Versio latina", Tübingen.

04/13-15/2023 International Conference "The Wrong Direction: Early Modern Translations into Latin", DFG Project "Versio latina", Tübingen (Proceedings)

08/17/2018                            
„Conrad Gesner und seine Historia animalium“ – Another Project Day at the Natural History Museum, Berlin 
Second implementation and trial run for the delevoped learning materials in 08/2018 in the context of a Summer School of the Humboldt-Schülergesellschaft under the overarching theme of “Antiquity and the Sciences” with a smaller number of pupils (Link)

07/04-06/2018                      
together with Sandra Dobritz: interdisciplinary workshop „Small Forms for School Education—Education through Small Forms“, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin

02/22/2018                            
„Conrad Gesner und seine Historia animalium“ – A Project Day at the Natural History Museum, Berlin
Project day 8.30 a.m. to 03.30 p.m. implementing an interdisciplinary learning material involving the exhibitions of the Berlin Natural History Museum, in collaboration with Stefan Kipf, Kristina Tyborski, Svenja Holper, Christin Hartwig und Sandra Berges and Astrid Faber. After refining and optimizing the learning materials through discussions with teachers from three quite heterogenous schools in Berlin, we conducted two project days, in 02/2018 with a mixed group of those schools (all in all 41 pupils). This allowed us a first positive evaluation of the learning materials developed for school teaching.

Deutscher Altphilologenverband (DAV) Link 

Neulateinische Gesellschaft (DNG) Link  

History of Science Society (HSS) Link 

International Association for Neo-Latin Studies (IANLS) Link

Natural Things: Ad fontes Naturae Link

Renaissance Society of America (RSA) Link

Society of Neo-latin Studies (SNLS) Link