Giacomo Castelvetro’s political translations: narrative strategies and literary style

Abstract - Translations of contemporary polemical and political tracts attributed to or associated with Giacomo Castelvetro (1546-1616) show a rejection of a servile adherence to the source text and the effort to produce an autonomous, readable text, one that in many cases is stylistically elevated and hence ‘literary’. Like most Renaissance translators, Castelvetro changes the form of expression of the texts and adopts narrative strategies in order to increase their communicative potential and reinforce the message they convey. An analysis of extracts from the translations of Discourse of the Maner of the Discovery of this late intended Treason (1605) and Elizabeth I’s proclamation By the Queen on the Seizure of the Earls of Essex, Rutland, Southampton (1600) will show how, through changes in emphasis and syntax, the translations give prominence to certain ‘characters’ in the narratives such as Guy Fawkes and the Earl of Essex. The stylistic elevation of the source text, moreover, shows how Castelvetro’s translations respond to a strong rhetorical tradition.