Printers without Borders: Translation and Textuality in the Renaissance

358 Pages·2015·5.751 MB·English

by  A. E. B. Coldiron

Printers Without Borders
This innovative study shows how printing and translation transformed
English literary culture in the Renaissance. Focusing on the century after
Caxton brought the press to England in 1476, Coldiron illustrates the
foundational place of foreign, especially French-language, materials. The
book reveals unexpected foreign connections between works as different
as Caxton’s first printed translations, several editions of Book of the
Courtier,sixteenth-centurymultilingualpoetry,andaroyalArmadabroad-
side.Demonstratinganewwayofwritingliteraryhistorybeyondsource-
influencemodels,theauthortreatsthepatternsandprocessesoftranslation
and printing as co-transformations. This provocative book will interest
scholarsandadvancedstudentsofbookhistory,translationstudies,com-
parativeliterature,andRenaissanceliterature.
a.e.b.coldironisProfessorofEnglishandHistoryofTextTechnologies
andaffiliatedfacultyinFrenchatFloridaStateUniversity.Sheistheauthorof
Canon,Period,andthePoetryofCharlesofOrleans:FoundinTranslation
(2000)andEnglishPrinting,VerseTranslation,andtheBattleoftheSexes,
1476–1557(2009).Shehasalsopublishednumerousarticlesontranslation,
Renaissanceliterature,printculture,andpoetics.Sheservesontheboardof
directors of SHARP and on the editorial board of the MHRA Tudor and
StuartTranslationsSeries.

Printers Without Borders
Translation and Textuality
in the Renaissance
a. e. b. coldiron
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107073173
©A.E.B.Coldiron,2015
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2015
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Coldiron,A.E.B.(AnneElizabethBanks)
Printerswithoutborders:translationandtextuality
intheRenaissance/A.E.B.Coldiron.
pages cm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-107-07317-3(hardback)
1. Translatingandinterpreting–England–History–16thcentury.
2. Bookindustriesandtrade–England–History–16thcentury.
3. Renaissance–England. 4. Printers–England–History–16thcentury.
5. Transmissionoftexts–England–History–16thcentury. I. Title.
P306.8.G7C65 2014
4180.020941–dc23
2014009761
ISBN978-1-107-07317-3Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,
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accurateorappropriate.
ToNick

Contents
Listoffiguresandtables pageix
Acknowledgments xiii
1 “Englishing”texts:patternsofEarlyModerntranslation
andtransmission 1
Nation/transnation:appropriationandEnglishexceptionality 7
Thepresentbook:selectionofcases,theory,methods 14
Patternsoftranslationandtransmission 20
Thechaptersandillustratingcases 30
2 Caxton,translation,andtheRenaissancereprintculture 35
Translatingthehybridpast:catenaryCaxtons 35
TroysforEngland(viaBurgundy):reprintinglostempires 40
Wanderingwisdom,textualauthority,andacculturationin
TheDictesorSayengisofthePhilosophres 65
TwoEnglishversionsofChartier’sCurial:poeticparatexts 91
3 “Bastardallone”:radianttranslationandthestatus
ofEnglishletters 107
TheQuadrinsgroup:genres,translation,andthe“English
exception” 112
Theprinter 119
“Allpoeticsislocal”:people,places,andparatextsinthe
Quadrinsgroup 122
Radianttitles:“trueandlyuely”asEnglishcode-phrase 140
FrenchandEnglishprefaces:sisterarts,siblinglanguages 145
RadianttransnationalismandrepairingBabel 155
4 Compressedtransnationalism:JohnWolfe’strilingual
Courtier 160
AppropriationandanxietyinEngland:translationsassubstitute,
prophylaxis,orheuristic 166
Polyglotpages:Wolfe’smise-en-pageincontext 172
vii
viii Contents
Purgedparatexts 186
Conclusion 197
5 Theworldononepage:anoctolingualArmadabroadside 199
Theform[e]softransnationhood 199
Thepoems:translators’forms 205
Thepageanditscontexts 228
Armadadiscourses,alternatives,andafterlives 245
6 Macaronicverse,plurilingualprinting,andtheuses
oftranslation 255
Earlymacaronics’strategicuseoftranslation 258
Eschewingtranslation?Macaronics’satiricmobilephonemes 270
Expressivetacticsofmacaronicverse 276
Conclusion 282
Afterword 283
Appendix 285
Bibliography 287
Index 324