A Companion to Medieval Translation, ed. Jeanette Beer. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2019, viii, 200 pp.

Abstract

Medieval literature, philosophy, medicine, and many other fields cannot be imagined without considering the huge role played by translations. Scholars have worked on this field already for many years, leading among them Jeanette Beer, who here brings together a number of authors who address specific aspects pertinent to translation work mostly in medieval literature. While she herself offers a concise introduction, she rounds off the volume with a study of the work by the anonymous compiler of Li Fet des Romans from the early thirteenth century which represents the earliest extant work of ancient historiography translated into a European medieval vernacular. The translator offers most detailed comments about his motivation and translation strategies, which helps us understand considerably how medieval writers approached their task. But back to the Introduction. Here Beer traces the history of the earliest translations, beginning with the famous Strasbourg Oaths from 842, turning to Eulalia, the Valenciennes Fragment, and Marie de France, among others. Subsequently Beer outlines the major highlights of this collected volume, highlighting that the contributors address vernaculars such as Latin (not really a vernacular), French, Anglo-Norman, Italian, English, Old Norse, German, Arabic, and Hebrew. Indeed, some of the chapters cover those languages, but we do not hear anything about German, Arabic, or Hebrew, apart from some very fleeting references. She correctly notes that the world prior to the printing press was deeply determined by textual mouvance which provided enormous flexibility in the rendering and display of texts in the manuscripts. The Introduction concludes with a bibliography and a bibliographical note about the author. This model is applied throughout the entire volume.