Translating the Classics into the vernacular in sixteenth‐century I taly

Whilst early‐ and mid‐fifteenth‐century I talian humanism had concentrated on ambitious new translations from G reek into L atin, rather neglecting the vernacular, the sixteenth century is characterized by a proliferation of vernacular works in all fields and, especially from the 1530s on, intense activity in translating classical works into I talian. This article discusses some material features of the original and translated publications under consideration, but especially explores linguistic choices and translation techniques used by three translators in a variety of classical texts: A ntonio B rucioli (1487–1566), who translated among other things the texts discussed here, the Rhetorica ad Herennium , believed to be by C icero ( Rhetorica di Marco Tullio Cicerone, tradotta di latino in lingua thoscana, per Antonio Brucioli ( V enice, 1538)), and P liny's Naturalis historia ( Historia naturale d i C . P linio S econdo. Nuovamente tradotta di latino in vulgare toscano per A ntonio B rucioli ( V enice, 1548)); G iovanni A ndrea dell' A nguillara (1517–72), who earned lasting fame for his translation of O vid's M etamorphoses , entitled De le Metamorfosi d' O vidio libri III d i G iovanni A ndrea dell' A nguillara ( V enice, 1553); and F rancesco B aldelli (d. after 1587), who translated all of C aesar's histories in I commentari d i C . G iulio Cesare da M. Francesco Baldelli nuouamente di lingua latina tradotti in Thoscana ( V enice, 1554). These translations are considered in terms of their cultural and political context, linguistic and pragmatic characteristics, dissemination in the sixteenth century, and contribution to the ongoing development of the vernacular.