We added to our database Sebastian Brant’s Narrenschiff (The Ship of Fools). It was first published in 1494 in Basel. Many of its woodcut illustrations are attributed to Albrecht Dürer. Das Narrenschiff rose to fame instantly after the publication. Imitations,…
Category: Translation
New Additions of Literature of the Sacred – Translations of the Bible and the Quran – and The Present State of the Jews (Synagoga Judaica or Juden Schul)
Note the new additions to our library. It is now possible to explore some of the Bible translations that preceded the King Jame Version, which you can also find in our library. (See our earlier post for an example of…
The Quran: English Translations
A number of different translations of the Quran are now available in our library. Compare the top ten most frequently used words (the content word vector) in these three translations: Translated out of Arabick into French. BY THE Sieur du…
Achilles Tatius: The loves of Clitophon and Leucippe, Translations 1638 & 1855
Two translations of Achilles Tatius’s The loves of Clitophon and Leucippe are now available in our library. The two translators write very different introductions (see below). The top ten most frequently used words in each translation suggest that the two…
Corinthians 13 – “It is not the object discovered that matters, but the light that falls on it.” – Definitions of Love (Continued)
The OED on the etymology and usage of ‘charity’: Two early types of this word appear in English: (1) cariteð , -teþ , (2) charité ; these are adoptions respectively of Old Northern French caritedh , -tet(þ) , (later, and modern Picard carité ), and the somewhat later central Old French charité (earlier charitet ); which…
Shibboleth
MW Shibboleth – from the Bible, via Milton (“Without Reprieve adjudg’d to death, For want of well pronouncing Shibboleth.“) and Byron (“Nay, it is their brotherhood, Their Shibboleth–their Koran–Talmud–theirCabala–their best brick-work, wherewithal They build more—“, “Juan, who did not understand…
An Egyptian Traveller: Josephus Barbatus or Abudacnus the Copt
Explore the new additions to our library: The true history of the Jacobites of Egypt, Lybia, Nubia by Barbatus, Josephus Abudacnus, was first published in 1675 (go to Books, select the author). It is thought to have been written between…
Queach
One of the earliest examples of usage cited in the OED is in Golding’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses: 1565 A. Golding tr. Ovid Fyrst Fower Bks. Metamorphosis i. f. 2v Their houses were the thyckes, And bushie queaches. from “queach,…
Zamyatin and Huxley through Orwell’s eyes
In Freedom and Happiness (The Orwell Foundation), Orwell writes about Zamyatin‘s We and Huxley’s Brave New World. Orwell finds that Huxley’s novel must have been “derived” from Zamyatin’s and that Zamyatin’s view is more pertinent to our times. We is…
War, Folk, Lord or Men, Hall, Battle?
Beowulf is one of the most important works of Old English literature. Maria Dahvana Headley, translator of Beowulf, tells us that it is both prudent and enjoyable to read more than one translation of the poem, for when it comes…