The Coniuracion of Lucius Sergius Catelina : An Early Tudor Translation of Sallust's 'Bellum Catilinae'

Omtale

At some point in the early to mid-1490s, Sallust's Bellum Catilinae was translated into English. Sallust's history deals with a pivotal moment in Roman Republican history, when the Roman patrician Catiline tried to overthrow the Republic in 63 bce. Surviving in a unique manuscript, this anonymous rendering was the first ever translation of a Roman history into English. It is also one of the earliest instances of a vernacular humanist translation that was made directly from its classical Latin source. Although the translation is based closely on a contemporary printed text of Sallust's Latin, it amplifies its source extensively, drawing on a Latin commentary and on other texts such as Vegetius' Epitoma rei militari. The translation deserves a central place in our accounts of Tudor translation and Renaissance humanism at the turn of the sixteenth century. This is the first ever edition of this important text. Its Introduction reconstructs the provenance of the sole manuscript witness and sets the translation in its historical and cultural contexts, making a significant contribution to scholarship on early Tudor humanism and the reception of Sallust at the turn of the sixteenth century. The Explanatory Notes reflect on contemporary scribal practice, comment on historical and lexical issues and record relevant variants in contemporary texts of Sallust's Latin.