Notes on proper names in the 18th century Romanian translations of the Life of Peter (by Antonio Catiforo)
Notes on proper names in the 18th century Romanian translations of the Life of Peter (by Antonio Catiforo)

Summary/Abstract: Vita di Pietro is a work authored by the Greek Antonio Catiforo in Italian and published in Venice in 1736. A Greek version was published a year later, also in Venice, by Alexandros Kankellarios. The work is comprised of six books and synthesizes information from various sources relating to the age and personality of the Russian tsar. It was translated several times into Romanian in the mid and late eighteenth century, in all three of the Romanian provinces. The large number of copies is evidence for the interest it aroused during that period. This paper describes several particulars regarding the transfer of the proper names from the source language to the target language. I have analysed four types of proper name: the choronym Moscovia and its relating ethnonym, Western choronyms, Russian anthroponyms, and anthroponyms of other origins, noting how the translators employ their source and the ensuing differences among the versions.

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