Abstract
The project aims to offer the first systematic survey, collection and analysis of Latin translations of Italian literary texts published in Europe between the 15th and the 18th centuries, in order to understand and highlight the role that these texts played in spreading knowledge of Italian works and authors and in developing a shared European culture. This research project has three main objectives: 1) building a digital archive of data and information about Latin translations of Italian literary texts; 2) building a digital collection of Latin translations in open access, in line with both the PNR mission "Digitisation, innovation, competitiveness and culture" and the 2021-2027 PNR objectives for the cluster "Humanistic culture, creativity, social transformation, inclusive society"; 3) publishing, among other outputs, a History of Italian literature through Latin translations, from the perspective of the literary genres involved. The collaboration of five research fellows (assegnisti di ricerca) is foreseen for data collection and the analysis of specific literary genres; purposefully hired IT officers will set up the platform. The archive and the digital corpus, together with other useful research tools, will be accessible through the website created for the project; the website itself will also be accessible from the websites of the Departments of the participating Research Units and from specific clusters of websites. The archive and the digital corpus will allow the cross-referencing of data, and the update and expansion of the content even after the end of the project. The archive aims to provide an innovative methodological model in the field of studies on Italian literature and the use of Latin in early modern Europe, and to offer a format that can be easily reproduced for other national literatures. Peter Burke (2007) identified approximately 1,140 Latin translations of European texts published in the time span 1485-1799, half of which are translations of works by Italian authors, approximately 350 authors of texts of different genres, poetry, short stories, theatre, epic and chivalric poems, dialogues and treatises on behaviour, religious texts, historical and political works. However, this number is only indicative, as no comprehensive analysis of this editorial production has ever been carried out. This project therefore aims to offer researchers and interested readers a complete index of these Latin translations, by means of a systematic bibliographical research on the catalogues available today. The project also aims to provide free access to the reproductions of all the translations (either through links to online archives where they are already included, or through open access digitisations of texts not yet available). This research project will then make it possible to write the first History of Italian literature in Latin translation, which will show the evolution of this production over the centuries.
Results achieved
All objectives and outcomes indicated in the original project have been achieved. Specifically: 1) creation of the digital archive TransLating (https://trans-lating.it), collecting: a) a description of the project; b) initiatives undertaken (both events and publications); c) updated bibliography on the topic of Latin translations; d) searchable records of Italian works (“Opere”) translated into Latin and their translations (“Traduzioni”). At the end of the project (February 28, 2026) the database collects the records of 312 works by more than 200 authors and 1177 translations (623 of which are primary translations) by more than 300 authors. For each “Opera”, the following information are listed: author (with link to bio-bibliographical records), editio princeps, century, form of the text (prose/poetry), metrical structure (in the case of poetic works), catalogues, link to the reproduction and/or IIIF reproduction of the work, literary genre, notes, translations: all these data are searchable, in order to search for other works of the same author, other work of the same literary genre or with the same metrical structure, etc. Research in the “Opera” field can be made through title of the work, author, genre, century. 2) on the basis of the data collected in the catalogue, a history of Italian literature in Latin translations in 14 chapters was published as a printed volume and made available in open access: Storia della letteratura italiana in traduzione latina (1350-1800), a cura di F. Lucioli, Gent, Lysa Publishers, 2025: https://www.lysapublishers.com/series/colibri-collected-studies-in-history-and-literature/2 (each research unit contributed with one or more chapters); 3) research on single authors and texts have been presented and discussed by all the members involved in the project in the following seminars (all accessible also via Zoom link) organized by the local coordinators in all the research units: a) TransLATINg Italian Literature: il secolo XV e XVI (Università Aldo Moro di Bari, 13 dicembre 2024), organized by E. Tinelli; the papers have been published in open access as a special issue of the international journal «Rinascite della modernità», 5 (2025): https://ojs.uniba.it/index.php/rinamod/issue/view/209; b) TransLATINg Italian Literature: il secolo XVII (Università della Calabria, 8-9 aprile 2025), organized by M.C. Figorilli, G. Lamberti, I. Viola; the papers are going to be published in open access as a special issue of in the international journal «Rinascite della modernità», 6 (2026), forthcoming; c) Umanisti traduttori delle Tre Corone (Alma Umanistica, Università di Bologna, 2 febbraio 2026), organized by A. Severi, J. Pesaresi; the papers are going to be published in the open access editorial series “Laurus”, on the Bologna Alma Mater platform AMS Acta, 2026, forthcoming; 4) the database was presented during the international conference (accessible also via Zoom link) Latinitate donare. Progetti di ricerca sulle traduzioni in latino in età moderna (Sapienza Università di Roma, 24 febbraio 2026), organized by F. Lucioli, V. Guarna, in which also members of the international advisory board participated. All the results of the project are accessible in full open access: 1) digital archive TransLating: https://trans-lating.it 2) Storia della letteratura italiana in traduzione latina (1350-1800), a cura di F. Lucioli, Gent, Lysa Publishers, 2025: https://www.lysapublishers.com/series/colibri-collected-studies-in-history-and-literature/2 3) TransLATINg Italian Literature: il secolo XV e XVI (Università Aldo Moro di Bari, 13 dicembre 2024), organized by E. Tinelli; the papers have been published in open access in the international journal «Rinascite della modernità», 5 (2025): https://ojs.uniba.it/index.php/rinamod/issue/view/209; 4) TransLATINg Italian Literature: il secolo XVII (Università della Calabria, 8-9 aprile 2025), organized by M.C. Figorilli, G. Lamberti, I. Viola; the papers are going to be published in open access in the international journal «Rinascite della modernità», 6 (2026), forthcoming; 5) Umanisti traduttori delle Tre Corone (Alma Umanistica, Università di Bologna, 2 febbraio 2026), organized by A. Severi, J. Pesaresi; the papers are going to be published in the open access editorial series “Laurus”, on the Bologna Alma Mater platform AMS Acta, 2026, forthcoming; 6) F. Lucioli, Traduzioni e latinizzazioni di testi letterari italiani, in Translating Italian Literature into Latin (1350–1850), ed. by Francesco Lucioli and Giacomo Comiati, special issue of «The Italianist», 44, 3 (2024), pp. 403-411 LINK; 7) Testi letterari italiani in traduzione latina, panel presented in the conference Rotte mediterranee. Migrazioni e ibridazioni nella Letteratura italiana, XXVII Congresso Nazionale dell’Associazione degli Italianisti (Palermo, 12-14 September 2024), whose proceedings are forthcoming on the website of the ADI. The activities carried out by the members of the research group and by other entities involved in the implementation of the project have not harmed the six environmental objectives indicated in art. 17 of the EU regulation 2020/852, for the whole project duration. In the research group there was a perfect gender balance (PI and substitute PI = 1 man and 1 woman; leaders of the units = 2 men and 2 women). Research fellows were all women in different stages of their careers. All organized events (conferences, seminars, etc.) involved an equal number of male and female colleagues from all academic stages (from full professors to Phd students) coming from the involved units, other Italian universities and other countries (France, Germany, England, Poland). Besides the aforementioned conferences organized by the research units and also accessible via Zoom link, the research was disseminated through the following actions and initiatives: a) organization of panels at national and international conferences on Italian and Neo-Latin studies; specifically: i) two panels on Testi letterari italiani in traduzione latina, in Rotte mediterranee. Migrazioni e ibridazioni nella Letteratura italiana, XXVII Congresso Nazionale dell’Associazione degli Italianisti (Palermo, 12-14 September 2024); ii) two panels on Latin Translations of Italian Texts, in Conference of the International Association for Neo-Latin Studies (Aix-en-Provence, 15-20 July 2025); iii) one panel “TransLATINg” Early Modern Italian Literature into Latin, Conference of the Renaissance Society of America (San Francisco, 19-21 February 2026); b) presentation of the research in internationally events as invited speaker: Francesco Lucioli, TransLATINg Italian Literature: testi letterari italiani in traduzione latina, invited seminar at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 14 January 2025.Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Andrea Severi
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento di Filologia Classica e Italianistica
Coordinatore:
"Sapienza" Universita' Di Roma(Italy)
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 43.129,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
17/10/2023
Data di fine:
28/02/2026
