Le traduzioni e la ricerca storica: primi bilanci e prospettive di ricerca

Over the last years, a significant number of scholars from different disciplinary fields have argued for the importance of translations as sources to investigate historical phenomena. This article aims at discussing some of the theoretical and methodological perspectives advanced in the European panorama of the study of translations. In particular, the focus is on some of the reflections developed in the field of Translation Studies and cultural transfer studies, starting from the recognition of translations as results of a cultural negotiation and the interest directed towards translators. The reconstruction will provide an opportunity both to frame the first attempts to incorporate these solicitations within the historiographical debate (from Peter Burke's elaboration of a “cultural history of translation”, to the contributions of Enlightenment Studies scholars), and to put forward hypotheses on the possible developments of these lines of research.