Visible masters and invisible students? Educational translation in the early modern Low Countries

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ABSTRACT In the sixteenth-century Low Countries, a market developed for a specific type of translation, designed for educational purposes. From the second half of the century onward, in particular, many bilingual editions appeared, presenting two versions of the same texts parallel to each other. These works furnished authoritative models that students could use to verify their own translation exercises. Children whose native language was Dutch, both boys and girls, used the pedagogical tool of translation to learn the prestigious French language that was crucial for a career in international trade or public service, or Latin, required for an academic trajectory. In this context, translation not only offered an authoritative published end product, but also an educational activity. This article maps the visibility of the various actors involved in these educational translations: printers, schoolmasters, and students. By analysing published schoolbooks designed for translation exercises, as well as handwritten material by schoolmasters and their pupils, it explores the involvement of different actors of translation and questions to what extent the activities of student translators can be retraced.