Early Modern Science in Translation: Texts in Transit Between Italy and England

This paper aims to take a fresh look at the emergence of a new linguistic culture at the end of the seventeenth century in England, when the Restoration, the birth of the Royal Society and the spread of the experimental scientific method posed the question of the standardization of English more strongly than ever before, in a quest for a clear, less ambiguous language capable of scientific expression. While members of the Royal Society could read Latin – which would remain the undisputed language of science for quite some time to come – nonetheless a rising number of important works that circulated in English translation testifies to a shift in sensibilities and a growing sentiment that cultivated Englishmen deserved to read the works of the new science in their own language. Within this broader context, which the paper aims to briefly reconstruct and reconsider, special attention will be paid to the entry points of Galilean and post-Galilean thought into England, in particular the English translation of the experiments of the Accademia del Cimento by Richard Waller. A consideration of linguistic features, translation strategies and culture-specific issues will aim to explore some of the ways in which seventeenth-century English continued to look to the Continent for its enrichment and refinement, as was customary in previous ages and in particular for literary texts, while at the same time claiming for itself the practice of specialized communication in the vernacular, which would pave the way for the rise of English as the language of science.