Renaissance Translations: Visualizing Early Modern Print Data from Spain to the Netherlands


This project will develop some visualizations of data concerning the publication of translations from classical epic during the sixteenth century. This draws on Professor Armstrong’s research in reception and translation studies, and addresses specifically the growth of the vernacular readership for classical texts thanks to the powerful new technology of printing and the distribution networks it creates throughout Europe and even the New World. The project has a particular focus on material from Italy and Spain, which have a close relationship on many levels (political, economic, military, religious) at this time, yet the dynamics of literary publication have been somewhat neglected. Lastly, the project will try to offer a visual schema for the notion of co-agency between the author/translator and the printing press, giving shape to the ways in which the new technology of printing changes the way in which authors present their work and develop it in relation to their readership, from the high cultural concerns of poetic meter and diction down to the details of publication format.