Compilation of an electronic Latin-German translation bibliography of non-fiction texts

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Vahram Atayan; Professor Dr. Alberto Gil
• Subject Area: Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 174835815

The project aims to create an infrastructure that provides scholars with bibliographic data on German translations of non-fiction monographic texts published in Latin between 1450 and 1912 as well as on the respective original texts. During the first two years data relating to texts translated between 1450 and 1750 was collected; the collection of data is intended to be continued for the period from 1751 to 1912 in a third year. The collection focuses on original Latin texts written after the invention of printing and thus contributes to a better understanding of the role of translation in the transfer of academic, technical or - in the broadest sense - factual knowledge both throughout time (subsequent translations of Latin texts that originated in Germany) and space (translations of Latin texts from other, mostly European, countries). The main objective is to allow for an adequate representation of the cultural influence of Latin as the main language of theoretical and applied sciences and humanities, religion and theology and partly also of administration and law. The project is intended as a continuation of the Saarbrücken Translation Bibliography (SÜB); the latter was also funded by the German research foundation (DFG reference number: BIB44 S BUV 03-01, INST 13408/1-1, GI 354/2-1) and aimed at collecting German translations of French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish non-fiction texts, which were compiled in an online database. The technical infrastructure of the SÜB continues to be used for the current project to structure relevant bibliographic data on the translations from Latin and categorise the texts according to thematic classes. Thus, the collection of non-fiction texts and translations can be searched by thematic, textual and cultural criteria. Moreover, the two databases can be used in combination to obtain an overview of the influence of Romance culture in its entirety on Germanophone regions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants