Search Results

Sixteenth-century French society, marked as it was by structural intolerance, was ill suited to accommodating religious difference. Catholics and Reformists both made efforts to extinguish the ‘false religion’ of their opponents. Being in the minority, the Huguenots naturally strove to gain legal protection, which could only be granted by the power of the sovereign. Yet they had to wait until the reign of Henry IV before any lasting legal status was created, in the event under the provisions of the Edict of Nantes, the fruit of bitter negotiations between the Calvinists and the Crown. Although the Edict’s promulgation brought a welcome end to a lengthy waiting period, its ambiguities resulted in deep and permanent divisions among the Protestant élite, separating the “firm” from the “prudent.” This article proposes to analyze the shape taken by these negotiations as well as their impact on the internal power-relations and juridico-political organization of the Reformist movement.

Keywords: Édit de Nantes, Corps réformé, Fermes, Prudents, Absolutisme

A unique source on the practical aspects of the scientia astrorum (astronomy and astrology) in medieval Europe has come down to us in the shape of a letter written shortly after 1246 by John of London, an astronomer based in Paris. John used the letter to answer eight questions on technical problems posed to him by his addressee, a certain R. de Guedingue, with subject matters ranging from the rate of precession to the dates of the so-called Dog Days. The article makes this source available via a critical edition (based upon three manuscripts) and an accompanying English translation. An introduction discusses the background and transmission of John’s letter as well as the identities of the letter writer and addressee. The edition and translation are followed by commentaries elucidating the background to each of the eight questions and John’s answers to them.

Keywords: Medieval Astronomy, Astrology, Horoscopes, Thirteenth Century, John Of London, University Of Paris

This paper looks at self-censorship and censorship in Bushido: The Soul of Japan (1900) by Nitobe, Inazo (1862-1933) as well as in four different translations of the book. In Bushido, probably the best known of Nitobe's books, the renowned Japanese writer and diplomat tried to act as an inter-cultural mediator between East and West and export the concepts and values of Bushido (the path of the samurai). Nitobe was descended from one of the great samurai families, but he converted to Christianity, married an American Quaker from Philadelphia and studied widely in the US and in Europe. Bushido was a valiant attempt to “translate” the ethical code of the samurais for the West, but perhaps in so doing Nitobe idealized the samurai caste by domesticating their values and teaching in order to bring them closer to Christian values and teaching. The main purpose of his book was to make Japanese culture acceptable to and valued by the West and in particular Philadelphia at the beginning of the 20th century, but he also had to assure the approval of the imperial authorities.The original text was written in English, which was not Nitobe's mother tongue, and it can be studied as a self-translation that involves self-censorship. Writing in a foreign language obliges one to “filter” one's own emotions and modes of expression. To a certain extent, it also limits one's capacity for self-expression. Alternatively, it allows the writer to express more empathy for the “other culture.” Furthermore, one is much more conscious of what one wants to say, or what one wishes to avoid saying, in order to make the work more acceptable for intended readers.The four translations are the Spanish translation by Gonzalo Jiménez de la Espada (1909), the French translation by Charles Jacob (1927), the Japanese translation by Yanaihara Tadao (1938) and the Spanish translation by General José Millán-Astray (1941). A descriptive, diachronic study of the translation of selected cultural references shows the four translations to be good examples of the way translations vary over time. They also illustrate the relationship between context, pretext and text (Widowson, 2004) and the visibility or invisibility of the translator (Venuti, 1995). We have also found it useful to draw on skopos theory, as well as some aspects of the Manipulation School, in particular ideology, censorship and the emphasis on translation between distant languages and cultures.The analysis of the four translations shows that censorship of cultural references is evident during periods of conflict (such as the Japanese translation of 1938 and the Spanish translation of 1941). We hope to show that the context/pretext of the translator led to such manipulative or censorial translation decisions that Nitobe's skopos was lost in at least one of the translations.

Keywords: bushidō, author/translator, ideology, Orientalism, Nihonjinron, bushidō, auteur/traducteur, idéologie, Orientalisme, Nihonjinron

By 1926 Manitoba had a population one-third that of Minnesota, and yet the bank resources it accumulated to that year represented only one-tenth that of Minnesota banks. What can explain the much higher generation of banking resources in Minnesota and Minneapolis as compared with a much lower generation of resources in Manitoba and Winnipeg? A study of the number of branches in Manitoba and the level of cheque clearances in Winnipeg reveal that these branches were as vigorous as the number of unit banks and cheque clearances in Minnesota. However, by comparing the growth of Minneapolis industries with those in Winnipeg, it becomes apparent that Winnipeggers did not, as Minneapolis entrepreneurs did, develop the specialized manufacturing for export, the consequent company head offices, and the transportation services necessary to generate endogenous capital resources. Rather Winnipeg branches were the result of a banking system transported from Montreal and Toronto which, at the same time, it supplied financial resources for Manitobans, also served the goals of its Central Canadian directors and shareholders, and therefore, proceeded to integrate Winnipeg commercial resources into this central urban network. The Minneapolis industrial entrepreneurs, by contrast, established banks which generated their own financial resources and banking procedures. This meant that the Minneapolis bank owners were determined to shape the investment and growth of their metropolitan region. In Winnipeg, however, the branches served their Montreal and Toronto owners who were determined to encase Winnipeg businesses firmly within that Central Canadian urban system.