Translating the 'Father of Translation'. Linguistic and Cultural Transfers in Byzantium

ended

"The interdisciplinary project entitled “Translating the 'Father of Translation'. Linguistic and Cultural Transfers in Byzantium” (TRANSFA) deals with the translation of Latin hagiographical literature into Greek in Byzantium (330-1453). Hagiography, the literature inspired by the acts, the miracles and the sayings of holy men and women, is a substantial part of the medieval cultural legacy. The project sets out to explain how Greek hagiography translated from Latin functioned as a vector of cultural transfers in Byzantium, by making accessible major unpublished material and by focusing on the circulation of people and texts. Dr. Lampadaridi’s project aims to contribute to a better understanding of this process through the examination of the dossier of the Greek versions of the Vita Sancti Hilarionis (hereinafter VH), a Latin hagiographical text composed by Saint Jerome, regarded as the “Father of Translation”, at the end of the 4th century. The Greek dossier of the VH constitutes an extremely rare case of hagiographical translations from Latin into Greek, a phenomenon not as well documented as the opposite flow of translations from Greek into Latin, as it includes different Greek translations. The project will provide the first critical edition of a mostly unknown verbatim translation of the VH into Greek, an extremely rare and fundamental text for the study of translations from Latin into Greek in Byzantium. By shifting the focus from translations from Greek into Latin to translations from Latin into Greek and by looking into the ""milieux"" of their production and circulation, the project breaks with traditional patterns that imply that Byzantium “gives” and the West “receives” and sets out new approaches to understand contacts between West and East. As a result, the project represents an absolutely novel contribution to the history of cultural exchanges in Byzantium."