We can analyze the work performed during the project in a thematic way, in order to make explicit the impact on the scientific community.
Theme A: Social history of medieval translation and its digital representation.
With the BIFLOW catalogue the scholarly community finally has at its disposal an open access research tool that brings together in the same infrastructure:
a. all texts translated in Medieval Tuscany before Humanism;
b. all the manuscripts of the various texts, in the different language versions;
c. a graphic representation of the translation process;
d. a complete bibliography.
The tool is realized with the structuring of an ontology that will allow it to be long-lasting, sustainable, and interoperable with other catalographic tools.
The data made available are entirely the fruit of research carried out or instigated by the team. The innovations that make this tool already a foundation for future research are at least the following:
1. complete information on Latin and vernacular texts, which is combined for the first time;
2. information is provided according to degrees of depth, addressing both those seeking basic information and those wishing to pursue specialist research.
Alongside the catalogue, the volume Toscana Bilingue (1260 ca.-1430 ca.). Per una storia sociale del tradurre medievale provides a complete and totally new interpretative framework. Based on the research that is photographed in the catalogue, the book is a critical companion to the phenomenon of translation, and answers the questions of social history: why do we translate? How? Who translates? For what purpose? It has been recognized by scholars as overcoming the linguistic approach to the phenomenon of translation in the Middle Ages.
Theme B: Editions and case studies: The project has been pursued following a twofold strategy: to study the phenomenon of translation in a general way, providing an overall interpretation of the phenomenon, and in parallel to provide a detailed study of a series of case study dossiers that are significant. Two books are particularly representative of this 'in-depth approach': the volume Le lettere di Dante, and the monumental edition of the Meditationes Vitae Christi. This is a central case of translation in our project, because the edition made it possible to solve problems that had never been solved by scholars (what is the original version? How is the author identified?), for a text that was a European best-seller.
There were several unexpected but important achievements. One of these is summarised in the book: Ad consolationem legentium. This volume revolutionised our knowledge of Marco Polo and the Devisement du Monde, one of the most important travel books in the history of mankind, starting from the in-depth study of the Dominican Order's vision and practice of the translation.
