Giannozzo Manetti's New Testament. Translation Theory and Practice in Fifteenth-Century Italy: Translation Theory and Practice in Fifteenth-Century Italy

In the 1450s, the Florentine humanist Giannozzo Manetti (1396-1459) produced a new Latin translation of the New Testament at the Vatican court. His version is modeled after the Vulgate, but influenced by humanist ideals of good Latin and correct translation. Since Manetti’s library is preserved almost intact among the Palatines in the Vatican library, it is possible to reconstruct the translation process from his manuscripts. Corrections and alterations in his working copy show how his method developed over time. Manetti’s Latin and Greek sources can be identified, and he must have had access to a copy of Lorenzo Valla’s annotations to the New Testament (the Collatio or Annotationes). His views on correct translation, which he expounded in his treatise Apologeticus, are partly derived from Leonardo Bruni’s De interpretatione recta. This study describes Manetti’s translation theory and practice in the context of fifteenth-century Italian humanism. In addition, it provides a critical edition of his translation of the New Testament.