Search and Finding: Topos of the Book as an Artifact in Translation Paratexts of the European Middle Ages

Medieval translators’ paratexts (prefaces-­ prologues and postfaces-­epilogues in particular) provide abundant study research materials for philologists and linguists. They contain both true biographical evidence and an image of an “ideal” translator or scholar constructed from several topoi (loci communes). The article deals with several motifs (topoi) extracted from translators’ paratexts and related to translatio studii in its original and corporeal meaning, namely physical transfer of artefacts (books, scrolls) bearing the knowledge sought by the scholars and the travel of the latter in search of the artefacts. As medieval culture considered the antiquity of a book to be a significant factor of its prestige and authenticity, an “accidental discovery” of an ancient and unknown book topos (motif) was quite common in translators’ paratexts. Another topos, which emphasized the dedication and diligence of a scholar, was a motif of a long and tiresome search, which implied overcoming various obstacles and facing dangers by the scholar (translator), who was trying to find a book he had heard about and was eager to obtain and make accessible to others. Translators’ prologues and epilogues, as well as marginal glosses in the book itself, also give information about other ways a manuscript (an expensive and often richly adorned artefact) could find itself in a new culture, such as being a war trophy or a diplomatic gift. Translators’ paratexts also provide us with evidence of scholars’ attitude to and handling of their books as artefacts and their concern about the preservation and propagation of their work.

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