Translation, Authority, and the Valorization of the Vernacular

Abstract

Medieval authors and thinkers operated within a context of cultural dualism, with Latin and the vernaculars clearly demarcated in terms of their mode of acquisition, function and status. The present chapter explores how this diglossic model of language choice was alternately challenged, subverted, and maintained by authors using vernaculars as the vehicle for the written transmission and preservation of cultural capital. In particular, I consider how vernacular texts reconfigure the textual communities invoked by the widely-held idea of Latin as a universal, even artificial language. To what extent does the choice of the vernacular as a vehicle for knowledge offer alternative models of community, either textual or social?