Overview

In this interdisciplinary study, Fred Schurink provides a major reinterpretation of translations of the classics in the half-century following Henry VIII's break from Rome. He reveals how translators applied ancient Greek and Roman texts to many of the key social, political, and religious developments and debates of Tudor England. Drawing on the authority of the classics and the concept of counsel, translators presented themselves as instructors and advisers to members of the regime and contributed to the development of the public sphere as a space for debate and negotiation of political opinion. Here, Schurink expands the canon of English translations of the classics by directing attention to important but overlooked authors such as Plutarch, Demosthenes, and Frontinus as well as manuscript and Neo-Latin translations. By uncovering continuities between classical translations and the manuscript marginalia of humanist scholars, he brings the histories of translation and reading into dialogue with each other.

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9781009647656

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Reviews

'Antiquity Made Present offers a new, powerful exploration of the boom in classical translation in mid-Tudor England. Using a sophisticated, comprehensive methodology that reveals the sources, style, contexts, production, circulation, and reception of a range of milestone works, Schurink convincingly demonstrates that classical translations fostered a new sense of the English nation during the political and religious upheavals of the English Reformation. Schurink writes with rigor, clarity, subtlety, and nuance, offering a detailed, engaging, and convincing investigation of the cultural phenomenon of classical translation in mid-sixteenth century England.' Jessica Winston, Professor of English, Idaho State University

Author Information

Fred Schurink is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature at the University of Manchester. He has published a two-volume scholarly edition, Plutarch in English, 1528–1603 (2020), a collection of essays, Tudor Translation (2012), and numerous articles and chapters on early modern translation and reading. He leads the AHRC-funded project 'Continental European Books in Early Modern England, 1500–1640'.

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