“Witnessing” a Translator at Work: Observations on Mattia Palmieri’s Latin Translation of Herodotus’ Histories (original) (raw)

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.