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Radical Translations

European Translation Databases. A virtual roundtable (9-10 December 2021)

Sanja Perovic and Rosa Mucignat will present a panel on 'The Radical Translations Database Project: Some Issues of Scale, Corpus and Method' at a virtual roundtable on European Translation Databases, organised in conjunction with SPP 2130 Übersetzungskulturen der Frühen Neuzeit / Early Modern Cultures of Translation (1450-1800).

MORE INFORMATION FROM THE CONFERENCE ORGANISERS:

This roundtable event aims to explore the feasibility of building a pan-European translation database for the early modern period. Our vision is for a comprehensive online analytical catalogue of translations which would provide information on source text(s), manuscript and print versions, and the different agents involved in the translation process, and which would link where possible to digital texts. Researchers are increasingly benefitting from databases and other digital projects which focus on a defined corpus or language area (e.g. Narragonien digital, Renaissance Cultural Crossroads Catalogue, Heidelberger Übersetzungsbibliographie, with others in development including an Online Repertory of German Translations of Classical Antiquity 1501-1620 and a continuation of the Renaissance Cultural Crossroads Catalogue for the years 1641-1660), but a bigger-scale European database along these lines has not yet been attempted. In this roundtable event participants will share experiences of developing online bibliographical/translation resources for the early modern period, and discuss the opportunities and challenges of embarking on an ambitious ‘umbrella’ database project. Questions to be addressed include:

  • Is a pan-European translation database a desirable and achievable goal?
  • What information/material should the database include? Should it be modelled specifically on an existing resource, e.g. the Renaissance Cultural Crossroads Catalogue?
  • How would the database function in conjunction with existing catalogues and databases?
  • How would the database be built? How much would it rely on individuals contributing the most up-to-date bibliographical information to emerge from their research?
  • In what stages should the project be organised, and how might it be funded?