Collaborative Translation as Conceptual Model in Alfonso X’s Scriptorium

Authors

Keywords:

Collaborative Translation, Multilingual Translation, Middle Age, Alfonso X of Castile, The Learned, The Book of the Eighth Sphere (1276)

Abstract

The astronomical and astrological treatise known as The Book of the Eighth Sphere (1276) is the product of the joint work of translators and experts who served Alfonso X of Castile, the Learned. Basically, the work consists in a translation of previous Arabic and Latin translations of the star catalog that Ptolemy included in his Almagest. Although there are few specific studies of its text, the treatise is frequently cited as an emblem for the project of linguistic unification in the Iberian Peninsula, since its prologue states that the Learned King corrected the phrases that were not written in "straight Castilian." Surprisingly, as the present analysis shows, the text itself is actually a combination of several languages (including Castilian, Latin, Arabic, and Greek). Through a reading focused on the treatise’s linguistic and cultural richness, I search to re-evaluate its place in the history of Spanish Literature. I believe that this reading can offer some keys for the study of intellectual collaboration and cultural contact in the Middle Ages, as well as for the study of some of the different conceptual models underlying textual production in Alfonso X’s scriptorium.

Author Biography

Belén Bistué, CONICET; Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

Doctora en Literatura Comparada, especialista en Historia de la Traducción. Investigadora Adjunta de CONICET, Profesora de Literatura Inglesa, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo.

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Published

16-11-2020

How to Cite

Bistué, B. (2020). Collaborative Translation as Conceptual Model in Alfonso X’s Scriptorium. Boletín De Literatura Comparada, 2(45), 113–128. Retrieved from https://revistas.uncu.edu.ar/ojs3/index.php/boletinliteratura/article/view/4188

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