The Critical Edition of M. Palmieri’s Latin Translation of Herodotus as an Authorially Revised Text (original) (raw)
Mattia Palmieri’s Latin translation of Herodotus’ Histories is preserved in four fifteenth-century manuscripts, which save four different versions corresponding to three revisions of the text made by the translator. The first and the second versions, preserved in an incomplete manuscript, have content, grammar, and syntax defects, most of which were corrected in a revision that led to the third version, preserved in two manuscripts and containing an improved text, which apparently was the one offered to Palmieri’s dedicatee, Cardinal Prospero Colonna. The fourth version, preserved in one manuscript, is believed to be the one prepared for publication, never realized. With reference to Palmieri’s translation, the paper approaches some methodological issues related to critically editing a text preserved in authorially revised versions, such as what their relationship to each other is, how an editor evaluates the various versions and decides which one(s) to give preference to, how the versions are presented in a critical edition, what should be the role of the Greek text and the manuscript(s) the translator might have used, etc.
Related papers
Investigating the Translation Process in Humanistic Latin Translations of Greek Texts. Proceedings of an International Conference, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, 28-29 April 2017 [Mediterranean Chronicle 7 (2017)], Corfu 2017,
Mattia Palmieri’s Latin translation of Herodotus’ Histories (15th cent.) has been preserved in four manuscripts, which appear to save three slightly different versions of the translation. The first version leaves out a number of verses untranslated and contains numerous Greek words transliterated in Latin, while in the other two versions the untranslated verses were fully translated and the transliterated readings were replaced by their Latin translations. Additionally, this version contains syntactical and grammatical anomalies, vocabulary and stylistic problems. Most of the corrections or improvements of the problematic readings of this version must have been made before the production of another two manuscripts, and must have been placed in the archetype codex from which the two manuscripts derived. The presence, however, of readings common in three out of the four witnesses in relation to readings of a fourth manuscript shows that the first revision must have been followed by a second one. The fourth manuscript seems to contain the last and most improved version of Palmieri’s translation. The latter must have been produced after a more careful comparison with the Greek text, because it leaves out a number of unnecessary additions to the Greek text found in the other versions. Also, the said version shows grammatical, syntactical, vocabulary and stylistic changes and improvements. In his dedicatory epistle to Cardinal Prospero Colonna, Palmieri clearly states the difficulties he encountered while working on Herodotus’ Ionian dialect; although none of the manuscripts of his translation is an autograph, the three versions of his translation, preserved in four codices, are witnesses of the way in which he managed to surpass the aforementioned difficulties, and reveal the way he worked to produce the final version of his translation.
Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia, 14, 2008
Exemplaria Classica
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.
Related papers
Exemplaria classica: journal of classical philology, 2020