ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to describe how medical knowledge and research was transferred across civilisations in the course of history and sets out the role that translation played in this dissemination. It starts with a historical overview that provides an examination of how medical research travelled from the ancient times until the invention of the printing press (ranging from Greek to Islamic medicine and then arriving in Europe through the Salernitan School and the School of Toledo), and then describes the scientific boom that took place during the modern age and its consequences, both for medicine and for translation. The chapter will then turn to the present-day dissemination of medical knowledge through a study of scientific journalism and specialised medical journals, which is inevitably linked to the current preponderance of English over other languages as the indisputable language of medical communication, and the impact of this struggle on translation. The chapter closes with a brief discussion on the future of medical academic research in today’s interconnected world, and on the expected role of translation within these connections.
