Lives in Translation: Elisabetta Caminer Turra

Elisabetta Caminer Turra (1752-1796) was one of the most eminent cultural mediators in the eighteenth-century Venetian world. Her work as reviewer and translator made her one of the first female journalists in Europe. Born in Venice, she took part in the editorial activities of her father and later took the reins of the Giornale Enciclopedico. In 1769 she married the Vicenza biologist and physician Antonio Turra. She then moved to Vicenza where she opened a printing shop, Stamperia Turra, and launched an experimental theatre company.

Turra started to work on her father's newspaper, L'Europa letteraria, translating articles taken from the Mercure de France. Her enthusiasm towards French enlightenment authors led her to praise Voltaire’s works and her reviews of French new works enthusiastically announced the diffusion of new ideas like the triumph of reason and the new achievements of science.

The Giornale Enciclopedico played a crucial role in the circulation of texts widely considered radical, or prohibited, like Helvétius treatise De l’esprit. In the summer 1774, entire extracts of Helvétius’ work were translated and published on the pages of the newspaper, thus offering to the educated readership a text that otherwise was almost impossible to read.

She continued working with her father on publishing reviews of books, specializing in translations of theatre plays. In Turra's eyes, the activity of the translator was crucial: she wanted to offer both to Italian authors and the Italian public new materials and new subjects. Turra was versed in French and English, but she also translated comedies written by Spanish, German, Danish and Russian authors which had been translated into French.

Her greatest achievement was the translation of several French plays, like those of Louis Sebastien Mercier or of Pierre Beaumarchais, that were collected in the collection of works Composizioni teatrali tradotte da Elisabetta Caminer Turra (1772). Following this work, Turra published two other collections of theatrical drama translated in Italian: the Nuova raccolta di composizioni teatrali (1774) and Drammi trasportati dal francese idioma ad uso del teatro italiano (1794).

Turra openly stated that translating French theatrical pieces was her way of contributing to the diffusion of reason across Venetian society. While she embraced the enlightened ideals of unveiling the hypocrisy of religious and aristocratic authorities, she did not share the call for equality and brotherhood promoted by the French revolution. Yet, her contribution to the diffusion of Mercier’s theatrical pieces offered to the Italian public a new form of theatre in which ordinary people had virtuous behaviours like the heroes of the Greek tragedies.