The "Esopete ystoriado" and the art of translation in late fifteenth-century Spain

Abstract

The remarkable success of Heinrich Steinhówel's bilingual edition of Aesop's fables in Latin accompanied by his own translation into German (Ulm: Johann Zainer, 1476?) inspired printers in other countries with nascent printing industries to capitalize on its success by producing other vernacular translations of Steinhówel's text. In addition to translations in Low German, Dutch, and Czech, by 1480 Julien Macho, an Augustinian monk in Lyon, had translaled and edited a version in French, which in turn served as the basis for William Caxton's 1483 translation into Enqlish.' Until recently, it was thought that the earliest translation into Spanish appeared in 1488, published in Toulouse by Joan Parix and Estevan Clebat, followed by an edition published in Zaragoza by Johan Hurus in 14892 Since then, however, an incomplete Zaragoza 1482 edition has been located in Pamplona, establishing it as the princeps edítion