Introduction: Translation as “Transformission” in Early Modern England and France

Abstract

Among the various forms of “transformission” that mark the transmission and transformation of early modern texts when they move from one context to another, translation ranks high. The term transformission, coined by Randall McLeod to describe the permutations and variations that occur in the passage of a text through print and reprint, edition and re-edition, may indeed be fruitfully applied to translations, protean texts par excellence. The textual remediation that they represent does not solely concern linguistic change, nor is it simply a question of crossing social and ideological boundaries; it most often involves changes of a cultural, material, and visual nature. Early modern translations could be refashioned to a sometimes surprising degree through various forms of manipulation and adaptation: by employing encoding strategies pertinent for the new readership, reframing the text by the judicious choice of paratexts of both a discursive and visual nature, and applying a range of editorial and commercial tactics favourable to marketing the work.