Of Matriarchs, Slaves and Prophetesses

Women in Medieval Translations of the Bible

Authors

  • Melisa Marti Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires

Keywords:

Vernacular Bible, Castilian prose, Bible, La fazienda de Ultramar, General Estoria

Abstract

This work aims to trace the various ways of translating the female roles of the Bible in the earliest renditions into Castilian and to comparatively analyze lexical choices, taking into account the historical, cultural, doctrinal, social, and linguistic aspects that determined them. The starting point will be a corpus composed of two texts that translate, gloss, and amplify the biblical narratives, La fazienda de Ultramar and the General Estoria; and, on the other hand, the first proper translations, gathered in the Escurialense corpus of vernacular Bibles. We will focus on the analysis of the construction of pious, challenging, contemplative, and threatening female figures in the biblical text, in order to evaluate how these behavioral models were transferred into Castilian during the emergence of literature in this language.
Finally, we will attempt to reconstruct some of the philosophical-doctrinal debates of the 13th and 14th centuries concerning the female characters of the Bible, as well as the historical-cultural framework in which biblical renditions circulated, to understand the scope and limitations of translation practices in the nascent Castilian literature.

References

Bloch, R. H. (1993). La misogynie médiévale et l'invention de l'amour en occident. Les Cahiers du GRIF, (47), 9-23. https://www.persee.fr/doc/grif_0770-6081_1993_num_47_1_1868

Cazelles, H. y Grelot, P. (1967). Las reglas de crítica racional. En A. Feuillet y A. Robert (Dirs.), Introducción a la Biblia. Introducción general al Antiguo Testamento (pp. 96-176). Herder.

Enrique-Arias, A. (Dir.) (2008). Biblia Medieval. http://www.bibliamedieval.es

Newsom, C. A.; Ringe, S. H.; y Lapsley, J. E. (Eds.). (1992). The Women’s Bible Commentary. SPCK.

Sánchez-Prieto Borja, P. (Ed.). (2001). General estoria. Primera parte. Génesis [Tomo 1]. Fundación Antonio de Castro.

Trebolle Barrera, J. C. (1993). La Biblia y el libro en la antigüedad. En La Biblia judía y la Biblia cristiana. Introducción a la historia de la Biblia (pp. 59-156). Trotta.

Trebolle Barrera, J. y Sánchez Caro, J. M. (1990). El texto de la Biblia. En J. González Echegaray, J. M. Asurmendi Ruiz, J. M. Sánchez Caro, J. C. Trebolle, L. A. Schökel y F. García Martínez (Eds.), La Biblia en su entorno (pp. 433-536). Verbo Divino.

Ubieta López, J. L. (Dir.). (2019). Biblia de Jerusalén [5ta edición, revisada y aumentada]. Desclée De Brouwer.

Published

13-12-2024

How to Cite

Marti, M. (2024). Of Matriarchs, Slaves and Prophetesses: Women in Medieval Translations of the Bible. Revista Melibea, 18(2), 70–81. Retrieved from https://revistas.uncu.edu.ar/ojs/index.php/melibea/article/view/7641

Issue

Section

Dossier