"Profiting those that cannot understand the latine": Exploring the motives for medical translation in 17th -Century England

Abstract

In the 17thcentury, the translation of medical books experienced a boom leading to an increased number of publications in English. Although the translators' own prefaces and dedicatory epistles may be considered part of the book's paratextual apparatus, this kind of prefatory material nevertheless constitutes a significant addendum to the book; in fact, it provides the reader with clues for the correct reception and understanding of the text in the target language. To serve both promotional and persuasive purposes, translators were generally expected to write some preliminary pieces, which often incorporated fragments of attitudinal meta-discourse, i.e. personal - or translator-centred - comments and remarks dealing with their writing intentions, motivations and goals. This paper attempts to explore the motives behind medical translation in 17th-century England, as expressed through attitudinal metacomments located in a study corpus of translators' prefaces and dedicatory epistles. The study may give some insight into why translators from the Stuart Age were resolved to put into English the then-current knowledge on medicine and surgery.