La terminologisation dans les textes in fieri. Observations génétiques sur la «Vie de Michel-Ange» d’André Chastel

Where and when do terminologies come into being? The study of translators’ manuscripts provides at least a partial answer to this question, and allows us to observe the cognitive and linguistic processes underlying the discursive genesis of technical languages. Because of their fundamental importance in the development of a European art- historical vocabulary, the Vite of Giorgio Vasari offer a unique opportunity to observe certain mechanisms for the reception and appropriation of technical knowledge. We will focus on the manuscripts of André Chastel’s 1981 French translation of the Vie de Michel-Ange preserved at INHA in Paris. In particular, the study of the terminological standardi- zation operated by the translator on Vasari’s language will allow us to photograph the moment of metamorphosis and instability between two discursive genres, the literary and the technical.