This post looks at the terms used for describe translators and interpreters in French and English since the 17th century as a way of understanding the history of interpreting.
36 – An Accidental Interpreter: Jean Jacques Rousseau and the Archimandrite
With thanks to Dr Evelyne Ender, Senior Lecturer, Department of Comparative Thought and Literature, Johns Hopkins University, for alerting me to this story. Athanasius Paulus must have thought his luck had changed when Jean Jacques Rousseau approached him in a café in Boudry, near Neuchâtel, in April 1731. The exotically attired Eastern Christian Orthodox monk was having trouble making himself …
34 – The Interpreters of Oriental Languages for the Georgian Kings of Great Britain
II Abraham Salamé
Salamé was the last Royal Interpreter of Oriental Languages. He is best known for his account of the naval attack on Algiers in August 1816, his first assignment as royal interpreter.
33 – The Interpreters of Oriental Languages for the Georgian Kings of Great Britain
II: Isaac Cardozo Nuñez and Simon Lucas The men on the list of Interpreters of Oriental Languages are not well known, and some of them have left very little trace. We have seen that John Massabecky’s story is unknown; so are those of Messrs Arbona (1763-1767), Logie (1767-1769), Deceramis (1769-1782), Tully (1794-1802), Costa (1802-1809) and Delagarde (1809-1816). They hardly appear …
Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire in the Eighteenth Century
32 -The Interpreters of Oriental Languages for the Georgian Kings of Great Britain
Fourteen men acted as Interpreters of Oriental Languages for the King of England from 1723. The first four were Easter Christians from Syria, then part of the Ottoman Empire.
26 – Artus de Lionne and Constantine Phaulkon
A number of diplomats travelled in embassies between Siam and France from 1680 to 1688. Six different groups of envoys attempted to bring about a rapprochement between the kingdoms of Phra Narai and Louis XIV. These negotiations varied in success and proved inconclusive but the stories of two of the most significant middlemen involved – the missionary Artus de Lionne …
18 – Cicero and Caesar on Interpreters
It is part of the working life of interpreters today that they are behind the scenes, most successful when unnoticed. That invisibility can characterise the historical record too: the interpreters who are known to us are the exceptions; the others are an assumed presence. That is certainly true of Ancient Rome. Interpreters are rarely mentioned in documentary or epigraphic sources for …
17- The Strasbourg Oaths of February 842: an Early Assembly
Looking for Interpreter Zero in the era before the Norman Conquest or the Crusades can seem unpromising. There is very little material on language use at that time, which is why the record of the Strasbourg Oaths in Nithard’s (795-844) Historiae or De dissensionibus filiorum Ludovici pii (Histories or On the Dissensions of the Sons of Louis the Pious) is so significant. What we get from this …
16 – Wealhstodas, Interpreters or Latimers
1066 is a key date in British history, marking the beginning of the Norman Conquest that led to years of upheaval as William the Conqueror consolidated his rule, repressed rebellions, redistributed estates and built castles. This is one of the most studied periods of British history; our interest here is in some details in the landscape, namely languages, communication and …
15 -The First Crusade: the Latin Story
Fulcher of Chartres, one of the chroniclers of the First Crusade, was an insider who travelled with Duke Robert of Normandy and Count Stephen of Blois. He had every reason to know when communication within a given group might present problems. Outside observers had little time for the nuances of regional participation: Anna Komnene referred to the Crusaders as Kelts, …