Revisiting and E-Mapping Theatre Translations of Ancient and Modern Classics in 16th-century France

The overall objective of the project is to achieve an extensive and comparative study of an uncharted corpus constituted by 16th-century French translations of both ancient (Greek and Latin) and modern (notably Italian) plays, considering that this century is characterised by a huge increase of translations as well as the growing need of professional translators. The main output of the project will consist of a digital archive titled “Bibliothèque Virtuelle des traductions théâtrales à la Renaissance” (BVTTR). The BVTTR will include digital editions of early modern French translations (with encoded annotations by means of visualisation tools) as well as a database of the early modern editions which have been translated after ancient and modern plays. The framework will build on previous projects which already proved the full potential of this research field (such as the DUBI project, the Digital Pléiade databases or the DHT Digital Archive). Our outputs will encourage the preservation and enhancement of the early modern heritage, especially manuscripts and ancient prints held by Italian and European cultural institutions. The research teams—which includes senior researchers as well as junior researchers and PhD students—will focus on two main fields: first, the revisitation of Latin and Greek plays; second, the French reception of Ludovico Ariosto. These research areas have not been sufficiently explored: the project will open up a veritable Pandora’s box that no one has ever dared to approach in early modern French studies. The digital core of the project will contribute to promoting the early modern heritage for both academic and non-specialised audiences.
The project involves five research teams with prospective international collaborations. Daniele Speziari (PI, University of Ferrara, French and Translation Studies) and Riccardo Raimondo (Substitute-PI, University of Catania, French and Translation Studies) will lead the workflow, and ensure the full feasibility of the project tasks by both implementing specific objectives and coordinating the other teams at the University of Verona (UNIVR), University of Piemonte Orientale (UNIUPO), and University of Turin (UNITO). In collaboration with UNIFE and UNIUPO, the UNIVR team, led by Prof. Rosanna Gorris (French Literature), will deal with the conservation and accessibility of the French theatre heritage, focusing on translations and imitations of Italian editions, in particular Ariosto’s plays. The UNIUPO team, supervised by Prof. Michele Mastroianni (French Literature), will mostly focus on the reception of classic plays and myths in early modern France as well as their various forms of translations, imitations, and re-writings, in collaboration with the UNICT team. The UNITO team, coordinated by Prof. Guillaume Alonge (Modern History), will implement an interdisciplinary framework addressing both the translated texts and the historical/material contexts in which they arose.