Reprint: Translating the academic article in the late 17th century

The first academic periodical was the Journal des Scavans whose first issue appeared in Paris in January 1665. This was followed two months later by the Philosophical Transactions in London. The Journal des Scavans covered the whole range of academic disciplines and was made up mainly of book reviews. The Philosophical Transactions was restricted to science and technology and was based on the contents of the editor's correspondence. The academic communities in France and England were in contact and aware of each other's activities. The first issue of the Philosophical Transactions includes an item translated from the first issue of the Journal des Scavans. Previous study, including consideration of thematic structure and process types, has shown that the English translator follows the French text fairly closely. The first translation from English to French appears in the following year. In this case the translator is highly selective in choosing those parts of the original text to include in his French version. The present study looks at the situation 10 years later. In 1675, the Philosophical Transactions produced 11 issues, including a number of translations, two of which were translated from the Journal des Scavans. The latter periodical produced 23 issues including 10 items translated from the Philosophical Transactions, three of which have been randomly selected for his study. It is found that the strategies used in the first translations are maintained here: the English translator follows the French text closely, while the French translator uses a strategy of selective translation. It is hypothesized that the French translators are adapting the text for a different type of readership, which might be seen as an early form of localization. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.