Thresholds of Translation (Paratexts, Print, and Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Britain (1473-1660))

This volume revisits Genette’s definition of the printed book’s liminal devices, or paratexts, as ‘thresholds of interpretation’ by focussing specifically on translations produced in Britain in the early age of print (1473-1660). At a time when translation played a major role in shaping English and Scottish literary culture, paratexts afforded translators and their printers a privileged space in which to advertise their activities, display their social and ideological affiliations, influence literary tastes, and fashion Britain’s representations of the cultural ‘other’. Written by an international team of scholars of translation and material culture, the ten essays in the volume examine the various material shapes, textual forms, and cultural uses of paratexts as markers (and makers) of cultural exchange in early modern Britain. The collection will be of interest to scholars of early modern translation, print, and literary culture, and, more broadly, to those studying the material and cultural aspects of text production and circulation in early modern Europe. Acknowledgements 6 Contents 8 Notes on Contributors 10 List of Figures 13 List of Tables 16 Chapter 1: Introduction 17 Early Modern Printed Translations and the ‘Sliding Edges of Textuality’ 21 Translation Paratexts and the Languages of Cultural Exchange 25 Making the Liminal Central 29 Part I: Fashioning Translation: Textual, Material, and Cultural Transfer in Early Modern Books 40 Chapter 2: Matter in the Margins 41 Words and Matter 42 Matter in the Margins 48 Translating Matter 55 Chapter 3: The Translator’s Visibility in Early Printed Portrait-Images and the Ambiguous Example of Margaret More Roper 65 Early Printed Portrait-Images of Translators: Visibility, Styles, and Implications 68 The Female Translator’s ‘Anonymous Visibility’: Margaret More Roper 77 Conclusion 83 Chapter 4: Textual Standard-Bearers: Translated Titles and Early Modern English Print 89 Chapter 5: Spain in Translation: Peritextual Representations of Cultural Difference, 1614–1625 115 Appendix 133 Part II: Translation and the Cultural Uses of Paratexts: Six Case Studies 151 Chapter 6: Knights, Schoolmasters, and ‘Lusty Ladies White’: Addressing Readers in the Paratexts of Gavin Douglas’s Fourth Book of Eneados (1513–1553) 152 ‘Go, Vulgar Virgill’: Douglas’s Eneados and the Early Sixteenth-Century Vernacular Aeneid 155 ‘A Myrour of Vertew, and of Grace’: William Copland’s Paratextual Positioning in The xiii. Bukes of Eneados (1553) 161 Conclusion 166 Chapter 7: Approaching Petrarch’s Trionfi: Paratexts in the Early Modern Scottish Translations 173 Chapter 8: Marketing Utopia: The Protean Paratexts in Ralph Robinson’s English Translation 195 Chapter 9: Mirrors for Princes: Paratexts and Political Stance in Henry Carey’s Translations of Romulo and Il Tarquinio Superbo by Virgilio Malvezzi 219 Introduction 219 Malvezzi, Carey, and Moralised Roman History 221 The Paratexts of Romulus and Tarquin 224 Conclusion 233 Chapter 10: The Paratexts to Ben Jonson’s Translation of Horace’s Ars poetica (1640): A Contemporary Reading of Jonson’s Poetics 240 Chapter 11: Translation and the English Book Trade c.1640–1660: The Cases of Humphrey Moseley and William London 262 Humphrey Moseley and William London: Booklists and Catalogues 266 Books and Translations Printed for Humphrey Moseley 269 London’s Catalogue of the most vendible books in England 273 Descartes and Scudéry: Two Case Studies 277 Conclusion 281 Bibliography 289 Primary 289 Secondary 301 Index 323 Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii Introduction (Marie-Alice Belle, Brenda M. Hosington)....Pages 1-23 Front Matter ....Pages 25-25 Matter in the Margins (Helen Smith)....Pages 27-50 The Translator’s Visibility in Early Printed Portrait-Images and the Ambiguous Example of Margaret More Roper (A. E. B. Coldiron)....Pages 51-74 Textual Standard-Bearers: Translated Titles and Early Modern English Print (Brenda M. Hosington)....Pages 75-100 Spain in Translation: Peritextual Representations of Cultural Difference, 1614–1625 (Joyce Boro)....Pages 101-136 Front Matter ....Pages 137-137 Knights, Schoolmasters, and ‘Lusty Ladies White’: Addressing Readers in the Paratexts of Gavin Douglas’s Fourth Book of Eneados (1513–1553) (Marie-Alice Belle)....Pages 139-159 Approaching Petrarch’s Trionfi: Paratexts in the Early Modern Scottish Translations (Alessandra Petrina)....Pages 161-182 Marketing Utopia: The Protean Paratexts in Ralph Robinson’s English Translation (Gabriela Schmidt)....Pages 183-206 Mirrors for Princes: Paratexts and Political Stance in Henry Carey’s Translations of Romulo and Il Tarquinio Superbo by Virgilio Malvezzi (Giovanni Iamartino, Alessandra Manzi)....Pages 207-227 The Paratexts to Ben Jonson’s Translation of Horace’s Ars poetica (1640): A Contemporary Reading of Jonson’s Poetics (Line Cottegnies)....Pages 229-250 Translation and the English Book Trade c.1640–1660: The Cases of Humphrey Moseley and William London (Warren Boutcher)....Pages 251-277 Back Matter ....Pages 279-327 This volume revisits Genette?s definition of the printed book?s liminal devices, or paratexts, as?thresholds of interpretation? by focussing specifically on translations produced in Britain in the early age of print (1473-1660). At a time when translation played a major role in shaping English and Scottish literary culture, paratexts afforded translators and their printers a privileged space in which to advertise their activities, display their social and ideological affiliations, influence literary tastes, and fashion Britain?s representations of the cultural?other?.0Written by an international team of scholars of translation and material culture, the ten essays in the volume examine the various material shapes, textual forms, and cultural uses of paratexts as markers (and makers) of cultural exchange in early modern Britain. 0The collection will be of interest to scholars of early modern translation, print, and literary culture, and, more broadly, to those studying the material and cultural aspects of text production and circulation in early modern Europe