Richard Hakluyt and the ‘Vulgate Latin’ version of Mandeville’s Travels
Richard Hakluyt and the ‘Vulgate Latin’ version of Mandeville’s Travels
In his Principall Navigations of 1589, the celebrated Renaissance editor and proponent of English expansion in the Americas Richard Hakluyt the Younger published a Latin version of The Book of Sir John Mandeville (ca. 1356). The version he selected was widely known across continental Europe from the late fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, but was almost unknown in England, and is now referred to as the “Vulgate Latin” in scholarship. Hakluyt’s editorial choice has created something of a puzzle in scholarship; since The Book of Sir John Mandeville was widely available, and repeatedly printed, in English, why this Latin version? And why not translate into English? In the same vein, the editor’s subsequent decision to silently excise the text from the second volume of his second edition (1598–1600), replacing the travel fictions of a probably pseudonymous, purportedly English author with the reports of his better attested Continental Franciscan sources, has incited comment. This article takes a new perspective on these old questions. It considers how the content and material forms of Hakluyt’s source(s) would have shaped readers’ attitudes to the text, as well as Hakluyt’s attitude as an editor. The article also offers a systematic analysis of Hakluyt’s treatment of the text, considering factors such as the decision not to translate the text into English, its textual context and paratexts, and, in particular, Hakluyt’s extensive marginal annotations. The article proposes that the version of Mandeville included in the 1589 edition was chosen and presented with care. However, the attentiveness with which successive editors, finally culminating in Hakluyt himself, treated the Vulgate Latin version is likely to have contributed to the text’s eventual discrediting and exclusion from the second edition of The Principal Navigations.
Early Modern travel narratives, Marginalia, Medieval travel narratives, Paratexts, Reception studies, Richard Hakluyt the Younger, Sir John Mandeville
317-353
O'doherty, Marianne
fdc9f775-1d70-45da-9fe8-e9a75d5a185d
16 September 2020
O'doherty, Marianne
fdc9f775-1d70-45da-9fe8-e9a75d5a185d
O'doherty, Marianne
(2020)
Richard Hakluyt and the ‘Vulgate Latin’ version of Mandeville’s Travels.
Viator, 50 (1), .
(doi:10.1484/J.VIATOR.5.121365).
Abstract
In his Principall Navigations of 1589, the celebrated Renaissance editor and proponent of English expansion in the Americas Richard Hakluyt the Younger published a Latin version of The Book of Sir John Mandeville (ca. 1356). The version he selected was widely known across continental Europe from the late fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, but was almost unknown in England, and is now referred to as the “Vulgate Latin” in scholarship. Hakluyt’s editorial choice has created something of a puzzle in scholarship; since The Book of Sir John Mandeville was widely available, and repeatedly printed, in English, why this Latin version? And why not translate into English? In the same vein, the editor’s subsequent decision to silently excise the text from the second volume of his second edition (1598–1600), replacing the travel fictions of a probably pseudonymous, purportedly English author with the reports of his better attested Continental Franciscan sources, has incited comment. This article takes a new perspective on these old questions. It considers how the content and material forms of Hakluyt’s source(s) would have shaped readers’ attitudes to the text, as well as Hakluyt’s attitude as an editor. The article also offers a systematic analysis of Hakluyt’s treatment of the text, considering factors such as the decision not to translate the text into English, its textual context and paratexts, and, in particular, Hakluyt’s extensive marginal annotations. The article proposes that the version of Mandeville included in the 1589 edition was chosen and presented with care. However, the attentiveness with which successive editors, finally culminating in Hakluyt himself, treated the Vulgate Latin version is likely to have contributed to the text’s eventual discrediting and exclusion from the second edition of The Principal Navigations.
Text
Richard Hakluyt article draft april 2017
- Author's Original
Restricted to Repository staff only
Request a copy
Text
Richard_Hakluyt_author_accepted_pure
- Accepted Manuscript
Restricted to Repository staff only
Request a copy
Text
Marianne ODoherty_Viator_2019
- Version of Record
Restricted to Repository staff only
Request a copy
More information
Submitted date: 2 August 2018
Accepted/In Press date: 26 November 2019
Published date: 16 September 2020
Keywords:
Early Modern travel narratives, Marginalia, Medieval travel narratives, Paratexts, Reception studies, Richard Hakluyt the Younger, Sir John Mandeville
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 424201
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/424201
ISSN: 0083-5897
PURE UUID: 74735bee-b0f0-4ac2-ab7e-9e3ee8aeb435
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 05 Oct 2018 11:34
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 21:38
Export record
Altmetrics
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics