Virgil's story of Aeneas, exiled from fallen Troy and leading his people to a new life through the founding of Rome, was familiar in the middle ages. The first true and full translation into any form of English was completed in Scotland in 1513 by Gavin Douglas and published in print forty years later. His version (still considered by some to be the finest of all) is significant historically but also for its intrinsic qualities: vigour, faithfulness, and a remarkable flair for language. Douglas was a scholar as well as a poet and brought to his task a detailed knowledge of the Latin text and of its major commentators, together with a sensitive mastery of his own language, both Scots and English, contemporary and archaic. The present edition is the first to regularise his spelling and make access easier for the modern reader without compromising the authentic Scots-English blend of his language. Glossaries (side- and end-) explain obscurities in his vocabulary while the introduction and notes set the work in context and indicate how Douglas understands and refocusses the great Virgilian epic. It will be of interest to medievalists and Renaissance scholars, to classicists and to students of the English language, and not least to the general reader whom Douglas had especially in mind. Gordon Kendal is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of English, University of St Andrews.

Virgil's story of Aeneas, exiled from fallen Troy and leading his people to a new life through the founding of Rome, was familiar in the middle ages. The first true and full translation into any form of English was completed in Scotland in 1513 by Gavin Douglas and published in print forty years later. His version (still considered by some to be the finest of all) is significant historically but also for its intrinsic qualities: vigour, faithfulness, and a remarkable flair for language. Douglas was a scholar as well as a poet and brought to his task a detailed knowledge of the Latin text and of its major commentators, together with a sensitive mastery of his own language, both Scots and English, contemporary and archaic. The present edition is the first to regularise his spelling and make access easier for the modern reader without compromising the authentic Scots-English blend of his language. Glossaries (side- and end-) explain obscurities in his vocabulary while the introduction and notes set the work in context and indicate how Douglas understands and refocusses the great Virgilian epic. It will be of interest to medievalists and Renaissance scholars, to classicists and to students of the English language, and not least to the general reader whom Douglas had especially in mind. Gordon Kendal is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of English, University of St Andrews.

This volume is the first attempt to establish a body of work representing English thinking about the practice of translation in the early modern period. The texts assembled cover the long sixteenth century from the age of Caxton to the reign of James 1 and are divided into three sections: 'Translating the Word of God', 'Literary Translation' and 'Translation in the Academy'. They are accompanied by a substantial introduction, explanatory and textual notes, and a glossary and bibliography. Neil Rhodes is Professor of English Literature and Cultural History at the University of St Andrews and Visiting Professor at the University of Granada. Gordon Kendal is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of English, University of St Andrews. Louise Wilson is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of English, University of St Andrews

This volume is the first attempt to establish a body of work representing English thinking about the practice of translation in the early modern period. The texts assembled cover the long sixteenth century from the age of Caxton to the reign of James 1 and are divided into three sections: 'Translating the Word of God', 'Literary Translation' and 'Translation in the Academy'. They are accompanied by a substantial introduction, explanatory and textual notes, and a glossary and bibliography. Neil Rhodes is Professor of English Literature and Cultural History at the University of St Andrews and Visiting Professor at the University of Granada. Gordon Kendal is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of English, University of St Andrews. Louise Wilson is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of English, University of St Andrews.

Recent years have seen a burgeoning interest among scholars in the historical importance of translation, not least of the classics. For English readers, Gavin Douglas' rendering of the Aeneid (1513) was the first 'true' translation of that work: faithful to the original, but vigorous in a distinctive way. This monograph analyses in detail and depth how Douglas has translated his text: the nature of the shift he applies to Virgil. Dr Kendal tackles Douglas' treatment of time, of space, of individuality, and of fate, relating the translator's actual practice to his (sometimes quite misleading) theoretical reflections on the task, and assessing the translation's legitimacy and value. The analysis provides a model which can be applied in appraising translations of other texts, and it will be of wide historical, conceptual and linguistic interest: to scholars working at the phenomenon of late-mediaeval and Renaissance translations; to contemporary specialists in translation studies; to students of Virgil and the classics generally; and to any readers who are interested in the development of Scots and English in modern times.