Percorsi della traduzione nel Medioevo (secc. XII-XIV)

The present issue suggests some routes for Translation in the Middle Ages, starting from Saint Hieronymus’s Epistola 57 (De optimo genere interpretandi), with the well-know statements about translation ad sensum and ad verbum, taken later both in the middle Latin world with regard to translations from Greek or Arabic, and in the Romance one for the translations in the Vulgar tongue. An agelong constancy of quotation hides different theories and practices, concerning the idea of text, the concept of the original, the role of translator and interpreter, the relation with other cultures from faraway times or places. Following the Hieronymic topos, we report the attitudes toward this subject of authors like Roger Bacon, Dante, Jean d’Antioche and Ramon Llull. Through a concise review, we get the middle Latin traditon to interact with Romance production, often studied separately, and the literary translations with philosophical ones. Roger Bacon and Ramon Llull are two representatives of the European Civilization which reflects upon its own destiny: the first blaming contemporary intepreters, the second promoting his Art through many different languages.