Když dva dělají totéž
When two do the same thing:

Two times two translations of the same text into Czech in the 16th century

Summary/Abstract: This article analyses translations of Ep. 5,27 by Marsilius Ficinus (Veritas de institutione principis): the work of an anonymous translator (perhaps Ř. Hrubý) and a later translation by O. Velenský. The article also analyses translations of Historia Bohemica by Aeneas Silvius (M. Konáč, 1510, and D. Adam, 1585). The translations are compared with their Latin originals and with each other: the translators’ strategies towards the intended readers are identified, as are the relations between the later translations and the earlier ones. The first Ficinus translation simplifies the ancient realia, avoids Latin infinitive constructions and translates some words with two expressions (multiplication). Velenský imitates Latin grammar in Czech. Konáč adheres to the verbum de verbo method, but substitutes words considered critical by Utraquist readers. Adam translates faithfully, but like the first translator of Ficinus, he uses multiplication and explicates within the translation. The translation style for the more literarily challenging texts is influenced by the translators’/publishers’ estimation of the readers’ skills (this expectation was lower for the vernacular text than for the Latin one).

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