Toscana bilingue (1260 ca.-1430 ca.): Per una storia sociale del tradurre medievale

Between 1260 and 1430 Tuscany, and notably Florence, saw the rise of a thriving translating activity.

This activity was directed not only towards the Classics, thus contributing to a renewed approach with classical antiquity.

Several texts were written and later translated within a short span of time: they include works expressing a great variety of interest (epistolography and rhetoric, spiritual exercises, moral encyclopedias, scientific literature).

Many of these texts circulated within linguistic trails that were complex and not always straightforward (from French to Tuscan vernacular; from Tuscan vernacular to Latin; from Tuscan vernacular to French, etc.).

Taken as a whole and inspected through the lens of social and intellectual history, such works show the great novelty of Medieval Tuscan culture, in which translating gained a pivotal role and acquired high status and credit.

The series "e;Toscana Bilingue / Bilingualism in Medieval Tuscany"e; (connected to the ERC Starting Grant project directed by Antonio Montefusco) aims to study for the first time this set of texts.

Its goal is to provide a fresh perspective encompassing the social history of medieval translation before Humanism.