The elaboration of medieval Spanish and Italian in Latin-romance translation: participial syntax in Alfonso x and Filippo Ceffi

Abstract

This paper focuses on the study of participial forms in the translation of Ovid’s Heroides carried out by the scriptorium of Alfonso X the Wise (13th century) and in the volgarizzamento of the Florentine notary Filippo Ceffi (14th century) in a comparative Latin-Romance perspective, with the aim of analyzing how these elaboration mechanisms are imbricated in the discourse of Romance authors through the translation activity they assume. We study to what extent the participial syntax is based on the syntax of the source text and whether there are differences between the Spanish and Italian translations in terms of the use of (more) vernacular or (more) Latinizing forms in each of them, observing the convergence and divergence movements that can be identified in the comparison between source text and target text and putting forward hypotheses that explain the different solutions in the two cases, by virtue of the period, the author’s intention and the permeability of the language to certain types of Latinizing calques.