Colloquia Maruliana, Vol. 7 , 1998.
Original scientific paper
Paul du Mont treatment of Marulić's De institutione
Cvijeta Pavlović
Abstract
When in 1585 Paul du Mont (1532-1602) translated Marulić's De institutione into French, the spiritual renewal following the Council of Trent was at its highest. Although at first glance his translation of Marulić's text may appear full and faithful, a detailed syntactic analysis shows differently: witness the comparison between the original and translation of the first chapter of De institutione »On Scorning of Terrestrial Goods for the Sake of Christ« (De terrenis bonis contemnedis propter Christulm).
The aforesaid comparison has revealed different procedure s employed by the French translator that in one or other way altered the original, including the change of meaning of single words, changes in sentence structure, abbreviations and amplifications. Accumulating synonyms, Du Mont amplified, adorned and »intensified« Marulić's original. This analysis, as well as Du Mont's epistle to bishop Morillon, printed in the preface to his translation, tells us much about the attitude of the French translator of Savonarola, Guevara, Denis le Chartreux and Louis of Granada to the didactic-religious author of De institutione. Namely, besides bearing witness to the prevailing translating style and literary vogue of the time, Du Mont's ornate and excessively elaborate rendition also show s his high respect for this »leamed and pious man, citizen of Split«.
In spite of numerous itnerventions, Du Mont preserved the original meaning of each of Marulić's sentences, adding new words only as an explanation and illustra-tion. Convinced that the massive production of books in his own time was not given the right direction and did not promote true values and true wisdom, he recommended for publication books which advocated »truth« and »justice«. In this context he saw Marulić as one of those who contributed, with his life and work, to the correct education of the spirit. Du Mont' s adaptation of the original to the French language (sometimes fully, sometimes only essentially) preserved the core of Marulić' s religious teach-ing. Also, the examples quoted in the present analysis of the first chapter show that Du Mont' s additions to Marulić' s text, considering the choice of words and the places with in sentence where the translator's intervention occurred, unambiguously prove his genuine admiration for the author of De institutione.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
25982
URI
Publication date:
22.4.1998.
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