2020 Essays

Turning Turtle: The Process of Translating BnF Ms. Fr. 640

Dyon, Soersha; Wacha, Heather

By focusing on the translation of the entries on molding and casting turtles from life in BnF Ms. Fr. 640, this essay seeks to underscore and bring to light the chronology, choices, and processes behind the Project’s translation of the manuscript. Our translation serves two main goals: to accurately represent the author-practitioner’s intentions and voice, as unhindered as possible by twenty-first-century assumptions, and to provide a window onto the vivid world described in the manuscript.