Lucian in the Early Modern German Translation Culture

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Lucian of Samosata was especially popular in the context of the vigorous studies of antiquity in the German humanism and was the most translated Greek author in the German-speaking area until about the middle of the 16th century. On the basis of the observation that this subfield of German reception of antiquity has not yet been investigated, the applicant wishes to present a comprehensive study of the German translations of Lucian in the early modern period. The practice of translating Lucian - so the initial hypothesis - shows particularly clearly the complex interplay between 'imitatio' and 'aemulatio' of antiquity, handwritten tradition and the emergence of printing, Italian and German cultural area, Catholicism and the Reformation, which is characteristic for the early modern culture of translation.The corpus of the study consists of 14 partial translations covering the period from 1469 to 1569; some of which were written by famous personalities such as Niklas von Wyle or Johannes Reuchlin. In the proposed project, these translations are to be partly newly explored, macro- and micro-analytically analysed and evaluated in the light of their literary-historical context. The project is focused on two central questions: How does the German Lucian tradition fit into the larger context of early modern theory and history of translation? What effects does it exert on the culture of translation of the early modern period? The focus of the study shall therefore concentrate on the aspect of the culture-forming role of the reception of Lucian. In the case of the early modern Lucian translations, the transfer of translation takes place in a complex way: the original Greek texts are usually transferred to the German culture through the Latin versions of the Italian humanists. Italian Humanism, with its specific understanding of Lucian, functions as a mediating instance within the 'transfer circuit' and is to receive special attention in the course of the study.