Europe and the Middle Ages: a translatological overview

Abstract

It is no easy task to speak of an overview of translation during the long period known as the Middle Ages. As earlier studies suggest (Ruiz Casanova 2000; Lafarga & Pegenaute 2004; Santoyo 2009; and Alvar 2010), translation is a human activity inherent to the transmission of knowledge. Translation has only recently received appropriate recognition for its important role in spreading ideas and literary trends2. It was not until the second half of the 20th century that systematic studies emerged in Spain of the “reflections” of those who previously engaged in this type of linguistic transmission and turned them into linguistic theories3. It should also be noted that the first Spanish university programs for translation and interpretation studies appeared in the 1970s and were only finally approved as university degrees in 1991. However, that happened more than 1,300 years after the era studied in this volume.