Exploring the Congo through Translation: Nineteenth-century Reappraisal and Translation into English of Filippo Pigafetta’s Relatione del reame di Congo (1591)

The paper examines paratextual features accompanying the translation into English of Filippo Pigafetta's Relatione del reame di Congo et delle circonvicine contrade (1591). Pigafetta’s book was successful and by the end of the century had been translated into four different languages including English in 1597. In the nineteenth century it was once more translated into English in 1881. In my paper I examine the extent to which new paratextual material introduced in the nineteenth century translation amounts to a rewriting of Pigafetta’s text.