Translation studies and the history of books: a productive collaboration?

Translation historians, such as Littau (2011, 2016, 2022) Belle and Hosington (2017) and Coldiron (2012, 2015) among others, have attempted to demonstrate the interdependence between translation activities and new conditions of book production that expanded the literary market. Littau, in particular, has paid special attention to the technologies behind the production and distribution of translations, making us more aware of how knowledge transmission processes operate materially. Book format, paratextual elements and, above all, data on the material production and distribution of books are key factors in understanding what is translated and how it has been and is being translated, both in the past and in the present. Hence, all these factors deserve the same degree of attention as linguistic and cultural adaptation strategies, elements more familiar to Translation Studies scholars. Firmly grounded in Translation Studies, in this paper I will exploit the notion of collaboration’ in order to tentatively explore the theoretical intersections between historical studies of translation and the discipline of Book History, and analyse the relationship between translation and the evolution of the book market. A brief case study on the momentous changes of translation in the 19th century in the Italian territories will attempt to shed light on the potential for greater interaction between the two disciplines, while admittedly remaining within the scope of my expertise, namely Translation Studies.