The Culture of Translation in Anglo-Saxon England

Robert Stanton, The Culture of Translation in Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2002). x + 198 pp.; 9 plates. ISBN 0-8 5991-643-X. £40.00.

This is an immensely impressive book, which tackles an important topic in a methodical, erudite, and very readable manner. Robert Stanton examines the development of a 'culture of translation', or translation as a cultural practice, in Anglo-Saxon England from early glosses through to full-blown translations. he demonstrates how Anglo-Saxon translators drew on the classical and patristic theories of language and translation, how they responded to the inherent difficulties presented by the process of translation, how they handled their concerns fur textual authority, how they developed their own literary styles, and how their changing attitudes to English resulted in the vernacular being accepted as an authoritative literary language.

In the first chapter, 'Interpretation, pedagogy and Anglo-Saxon glosses', Stanton provides an overview of the different types of Latin and Old English glosses that were used by the Anglo-Saxons; discusses the relationship between glosses and commentaries (noting that the distinction between them is not always sharp); evaluates the importance of the glosses that emerged from the school of Theodore and Hadrian at Canterbury in the seventh century; considers the glosses to the hcrmeneutic Latin texts...