A Context-Based Translation of Chapter 14 “De vocibus naturalibus in animalibus eorumque anatomia” from the Liber anatomicus de natura soni et vocis of Athanasius Kircher’s Musurgia Universalis sive Ars Magna Consoni et Dissoni

Temina Cadi Sulumuna

doi:10.18290/rh216912-13

Temina Cadi Sulumuna Chopin University of Music

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh216912-13

Keywords: Athanasius Kircher’s Musurgia Universalis, context-based approach to translation, nature of sound, nature of voice, zoomusicology, zootomy

Abstract

The author’s aim is to present a context-based English translation of chapter 14 titled “De vocibus naturalibus in animalibus eorumque anatomia”, from the Liber anatomicus de natura soni et vocis of Athanasius Kircher’s Musurgia Universalis sive Ars Magna Consoni et Dissoni published in 1650 in Rome. The article is divided into three parts. The first one (introduction) states the reasons for doing a context-based translation of the chapter. The second part forms the main and most extensive part because it presents the translation itself, along with annotations. In the third part, emphasis is laid on the author’s conclusions regarding the importance of a context-based approach to the translation of Kircher’s text. An examination of the context proved to be essential for achieving both clarity and quality in the translation, avoiding significant interpretative errors, distinguishing between Kircher’s own statements and covert quotations, and providing the reader with additional information contained in the annotations, which shed light on, and comment upon, the issues raised by Kircher himself.

References

A Greek-English Lexicon. Compiled by Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, revised and augmented by Henry Stuart Jones. Clarendon Press, 1996.

Barnett, Adrian A. “Three-toed tree sloths (Bradypodidae).” Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia. 2nd ed., vol. 13, Mammals II, edited by Devra G. Kleiman et al., Gale, 2004, pp. 161–169.

Godwin, Joscelyn. Athanasius Kircher’s Theatre of the World with 410 Illustrations. Thames & Hudson, 2009.

Macbain, Alexander. An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language. Eneas Mackay, 1911.

Moraes-Barros, N. “Family Megalonychidae (two-toed sloths).” Handbook of the Mammals of the World, vol. 8, Insectivores, Sloths and Colugos, edited by Don E. Wilson and Russell A. Mittermeier, Lynx Edicions, 2018, pp. 104–117.

Naples, Virginia L. “Xenarthra (sloths, anteaters, and armadillos).” Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia. 2nd ed., vol. 13, Mammals II, edited by Devra G. Kleiman et al., Gale, 2004, 147–154.

Pangrazi, Tiziana. La “Musurgia universalis” di Athanasius Kircher: contenuti, fonti, terminologia. L. S. Olschki, 2009.

Pauli, J. N. “Family Bradypodidae (three-toed sloths).” Handbook of the Mammals of the World, vol. 8, Insectivores, Sloths and Colugos, edited by Don E. Wilson and Russell A. Mittermeier, Lynx Edicions, 2018, pp. 118–132.