Translation and Transfer of Knowledge in Encyclopedic Compilations, 1680-1830 (Ucla Clark Memorial Library Series)

Review
"In this highly anticipated book, Donato and Lüsebrink take a multifaceted approach to the transnational mobility, adaptation, and repurposing of encyclopedic texts in the long eighteenth century. By exploring the work behind a great number of encyclopedic compilations coded as ‘translations,’ the thirteen essays offer new, rich, eye-opening perspectives on the translator’s role in transforming and transmitting knowledge across linguistic and national borders in the Enlightenment era." -- Linn Holmberg, Researcher and Teacher in History of Science and Ideas, Stockholm University
"This collection of case studies traces the mechanisms and networks of the production, translation, and dissemination of knowledge in early modern Europe and, at the same time, sheds light on the economy of knowledge itself. The volume offers a fresh and insightful look at encyclopedism before the age of Wikipedia, reminding the reader of forgotten lessons." -- Andreas Motsch, Associate Professor of French, University of Toronto
From its modern origins in seventeenth-century France, encyclopedic compilations met the need for the dissemination of information in a more flexible format, one that eschewed the limits of previous centuries of erudition. The rise of vernacular languages dovetailed with the demand for information in every sector, sparking competition among nations to establish the encyclopedic "paper empires" that became symbols of power and potential. The contributors to this edited collection evaluate the long-overlooked phenomenon of knowledge creation and transfer that occurred in hundreds of translated encyclopedic compilations over the long eighteenth century.
Analysing multiple instances of translated compilations, Translation and Transfer of Knowledge in Encyclopedic Compilations, 1680–1830 expands into the vast realm of the multilingual, encyclopedic compilation, the most tangible proof of the global enlightenment. Through the presentation of an extensive corpus of translated compilations, this volume argues that the true site of knowledge transfer resided in the transnational movement of ideas exemplified by these compendia. The encyclopedia came to represent the aspiring nation as a viable economic and political player on the world stage; the capability to tell knowledge through culture became the hallmark of a nation’s cultural capital, symbolic of its might and mapping the how, why, and where of the global eighteenth century.