Translatio or the Transmission of Culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Modes and Messages (ARIZONA STUDIES IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE)

This volume presents an impressive array of instances of cultural translation between nations, religions, languages, genres, and media. It spans a chronological period that extends from late antiquity to the sixteenth century. Translatio or the Transmission of Culture analyses multiple forms of cultural transmission - the ancient and medieval arts of memory, the propagation of saints' cults, mechanisms of social and spiritual discipline, and the foundations of national identity - to offer a rich investigation into the formulation of cultural influence in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It explores the materials, methods, and contexts of translation through traditional philological and historical practices, as well as foregrounding provocative new readings of familiar sources influenced by recent research into cognition, ideology, and gender. With something for both the seasoned scholar and the student, Translatio or the Transmission of Culture reveals some of the processes by which meaning is re-made in the present from the materials of the past. Volume based on selected, reworked papers from the 10th Annual ACMRS Conference at Tempe (Arizona), on 'Translatio, or the Transmission of Culture' held on 12-14 February 2004. Papers in the volume address, for example, issues surrounding the translation of various texts into various languages, the transmission of culture from one people to another, or the various kinds of translations possible in ecclesiastical contexts.