Evangelising 19^th-century Italy?: Translation and the transnational migration of cheap Evangelical tracts

ABSTRACT

Translation scholars have so far studied religious texts largely in relation to the transnationalisation of canonical texts in the codex and printed book format. Religious publishing, however, extends to other, more ephemeral publications. The focus of this article is on Protestant tracts, which proliferated throughout the nineteenth century in connection with the Evangelical Revival. Translation of tracts was crucial to the crusade led by the Evangelicals to disseminate their doctrine. The article first gives insights into the translational and transnational extent of this crusade. Then it examines the cultural and social impact of translated tracts in the Italian Catholic context with particular reference to a corpus of children’s publications. The article also provides a bibliographical and historiographical analysis which shows that the impact of translated Protestant tracts in Italy was not, as has previously been argued, a post-1848 phenomenon.

KEYWORDS:

• Translation of religious texts
• religious and moral tracts
• Evangelicalism
• nineteenth-century Italy
• children’s literature

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In this article ‘religious texts’ are intended as ‘texts that are crucial in giving rise to a believing community’ rather than ‘texts that discuss historical or present-day religious beliefs and practices of a believing community’ (Nida 1994, 195). For discussions of the role of translation in the transmission of religious texts, practices and ideas see for example Stine (1990), Long (2005), Ricci (2011) and Delisle and Woodsworth (2012).

2. See e.g. Israel (2016), O’Connor (2019), Durston (2007) and Davis (2013).

3. Among the few studies discussing translated Protestant tracts are Lai (2007, 2012), Roberts (2006) and Israel (2011).

4. Known as the first Italian constitution promulgated by King Charles Albert of Savoy in the liberal and revolutionary climate of 1848, the Albertine Statute applied first exclusively to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. It was extended to unified Italy in 1861. The first article of the Statute reads ‘La Religione Cattolica, Apostolica e Romana è la sola Religione dello Stato. Gli altri culti ora esistenti sono tollerati conformemente alle leggi’ [The Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Religion is the only Religion of the State. All other currently existing religious cults are tolerated in accordance with the Law].

5. Many of the tracts published by the Claudiana, the first Protestant publishing house in Italy funded in Turin in 1855, were reprints or rewrites of texts from the previous decades. For more information about the history of the Claudiana and its publications see Solari (1997).

6. See e.g. Jones (1850, 297, 328).

7. The Society’s lists of subscribers and contributors provide solid evidence of how actively members of the gentry engaged in the dissemination of the tracts.

8. See e.g. Jones (1850, 317, 360, 401) and RTS (1840, 172).

9. ‘Asiatic Society of Paris’, Missionary Register, September issue (1824), 393–394 (393).

10. That the quality of the translation published by tract, Bible and missionary societies was poor is evidenced by the many complaints made to the translators and debated in Evangelical periodicals (see, e.g. ‘Replies to B. W.’, The Christian Observer 5.28 (1827), 257–267; ‘British and Foreign Bible Society’, The Missionary Herald 24.4 (1828), 121–124).

11. The estimates were calculated using The National Archives Currency Converter (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/).

12. Ibid., 305–307.

13. The ‘Spanish Translation Society’, was ‘formed for the translation of standard religious Works into the Spanish Tongue’ (see ‘Spanish-translation Society’, Missionary Register, May issue (1826), 247–248 (247). In 1826 it extended to encompass the French language, acquiring the denomination of ‘French and Spanish Translation Society’.

14. See Jones (1850, vi).

15. Ibid., 141.

16. A RTS correspondent based in Italy, for instance, defined tracts as ‘torches which shine in the midst of the darkness of Catholicism, and shed here and there gleams of hope and faith’ (in Jones 1850, 369). The association of Catholicism with superstition and of Protestantism with reason has its roots in the English Reformation (see e.g. Parish and Naphy 2002; Racault 2002).

17. In the seventeenth century the Protestants started to use the term ‘Popery’ in a derogative sense to identify the Catholic Church as a ‘Church that placed an ungodly stress on formalized, unscriptural ritual and obedience to clerical hierarchy’ (Knight 2011, 47).

18. Ibid., 237, 308, 570.

19. Ibid., 303.

20. See for example Jones (1850, 308).

21. I have not been able to locate nor find further information on this translation.

22. It is not clear why the RTS published a translation of A Letter from Pope Pius IX. It is possible that this was a ‘corrupt translation’ similar to that of a letter from Pope Pius VI, allegedly intended to ‘trick the Catholic inhabitants out of their religion’ (see An Index of Prohobited Books by command of the present Pope Gregory XVI (London: Duncan and Malcolm, 1840)), 63. The same speculation applies to the texts by St. Augustine published by the Malta press in 1826 and listed on p. 6 of this article.

23. ‘Activity of the Malta Press’, Missionary Register, July issue (1826), 318.

24. ‘Mission to Western Asia’, The Missionary Herald 24.4 (1828), 107.

25. The translations’ respective originals are also indicated – Keith’s Evidence of Prophecy; Serious Thoughts of Eternity, A brief and clear Examination of the Two Covenants, namely, that of the Works, and that of Grace; The Way to Heaven; The Progress of Sun; Summary of the Bible; The Brazen Serpent; The Swiss Peasant; Brief Exposition of the General Faith of the Reformation; The Way of Salvation and History of Andrew Dunn.

26. The translations’ sources, respectively, The Lamb of God; The good shepherd; Easy questions & answers, on Scriptural subjects, for little children; God is Love; King Josiah; The Leper; Sin forgiven; The true temple, were published in the 1840s in three different series – ‘Sunday readings for children’, sold in Dublin by the Dublin Tract Repository in D’Olier Street and in London by Macintosh & Co.; ‘Tracts for children’, printed and sold in London by William Yapp; ‘Tracts for little children’ sold at Plymouth Tract Depot and at Warwick Square Tract Depot in London.

27. Very little information has emerged with regard to the print runs of the translated tracts. The tract societies often vaguely speak of thousands of copies (see e.g. Jones 1850, 371; ‘Mission to Western Asia’, The Missionary Herald, 24.4 (1828), 107).

28. see also Jones (1850, 369).

29. For more information about the history of the Bible in Italy see Platone (2004), Stella and Lupi (2008), Melloni (2013).

30. Stella and Lupi (2008, 106) (my translation).

31. See Roggero (2006), in particular pp. 15–31.

32. Stella and Lupi (2008, 6) (my translation).

33. Ibid., 6 and 107; see also Roggero (2006, 22–24).

34. Illiteracy in the first half of nineteenth-century Italy has so far been explored only in relation to a few regional cases (see e.g. Brambilla 1991, 149–186; Xenio Toscani 1993). Studies covering the post-unitary period, on the other hand, are more numerous and conducted on a more national scale. According to Gabriella Solari (1997, 26), in the aftermath of Italy’s unification, 75% of the Italian population was illiterate, with peaks of illiteracy reaching 90% in Sicily and Sardinia. Daniele and Malanima (2011, 16) report that in 1871 the general rate of illiteracy was about 70% but exceeded 80% in Basilicata, Calabria, Sardinia, Sicily, Abruzzi and Puglia. In Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria rates were lower than 60% (Ibid.). On the basis of these statistics and what emerged from existing regional studies, it is safe to assume that in pre-unitary Italy the situation was even more desperate.

35. In Jones (1850, 370).

36. See e.g. RTS (1840, 360), Jones (1850, 369); Daniel Wilson (1827, 119); Charlotte Anne Eaton (1852 [1820], 231).

37. see also Spini (1956, 111).

38. See e.g. Jones (1850, 369).

39. For a detailed account of the history of the Waldensians see Spini (1956, 1–26); Molnar, Hugon, and Vinay (1974–1980), Tourn (2008).

40. See e.g. Pla-Lang (2008, 60–61).

41. Many of the tracts published in Lausanne that are preserved at the Biblioteca Valdese and Biblioteca della Società di Studi Valdesi in Torre Pellice support this hypothesis. I am indebted to Marco Fratini for his help in locating these tracts.

42. For a comprehensive introduction to the Evangelical Revival see Ditchfield (1998), Stubenrauch (2016).

43. Ibid., my translation, emphasis in the original.

44. see also Mittler, ‘Only Connect’, 43.

45. Mittler ‘Only Connect’, 43.

46. Clearly these individuals had embraced the Protestants’ stereotyped and centuries-old association of Protestantism with reason and innovation and of Catholicism with superstition and backwardness (see footnote 27).

47. See Alessandro Manzoni, in De Luca (1974, 83), Spini (1956, 64, 75).

48. See e.g. Bertoni Jovine (1954, 91–106), Ascenzi (2006), Sindoni (2015, 103–104).

49. See Passerin d’Entrèves (1993, 71).

50. Ibid., 73. Matilde Calandrini was born of a Protestant family from Lucca. For more information about her role in popular education in Italy see Bertoni Jovine (1954, 116–118). Raffaello Lambruschini never converted to Protestantism but had very close relationships with the Italian Evangelical community in Tuscany and was in favour of a Protestant reformation in Italy (see in particular Antonio Di Mauro (2004) 115–152; Viroli (2012, 115–125).

51. See e.g. Lambruschini (1836), Sacchi (1846), Chiosso (2007, 223), Boero and De Luca (2009, 4).

52. De Rubertis (1941, 46); RTS (1840, 370).

53. See in particular Sacchi (1845, 189–204, 1846, 228–244).

54. These translations included Catholic tracts, such as those written by German Christoph von Schmid (1768–1854), which had a very wide circulation in nineteenth-century Europe (see Blamires 1994, 69–82; O’Connor 2017).

55. Lambruschini, Review of Storiette per lettura dei Bambini, p. 234 (emphasis in the original).

56. See De Rubertis (1941).

57. I have seen similar warnings on the cover of the editions of Le Cinque Vedove di Waterside (1828), Il Pericolo Schivato (1829), I due Vecchi (1829), Il Fanciullo Smarrito (1828) and Annetta (1829) published by the Florentine Audin.

58. See for example the ‘Decretum’ of 11 June 1827 in the periodical L’Amico d’Italia, 109–110 (110), in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum of 1841 (371) and of 1862 (415).

59. ‘Decretum Feria V Die 23 Junii 1836’. Annali delle Scienze Prodigiose 8.3 (1836), 242–243.

60. In Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1841), 371.

61. See in particular Rusconi (2010, 106–125), Palazzolo (2010, 126–140).

62. See e.g. De Sanctis (1967, 130); Palazzolo (2004); Boero and De Luca (2009, 4, 8); Bonomelli (2011, 55–57).

63. See e.g. Boero and De Luca (2009, 8–10), Marrone (2002, 56).

64. See, e.g. Boero and De Luca (2009, 4).

65. Ibid.

Additional information

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No [660143].

Notes on contributors

Alice Colombo

Alice Colombo is a visiting researcher at the University of Bristol. She spent two years (September 2015–August 2017) as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Studies, NUI Galway, working on the project ‘The Cross-Cultural Mobility of Cheap Print: British Chapbooks in Italy, 1800–1850’. Alice is further researching the transnational dimension of street literature in nineteenth-century Italy, combining translation studies and book history. She also extensively explored the British and Italian trajectories of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels in her PhD thesis ‘Reworkings in the Textual History of Gulliver’s Travels: A Translational Approach’. She has published on the relationship between translation and book illustration in Word and Image and on translation of street literature in nineteenth-century Italy in Translation Studies.