ABSTRACT
The Introduction defines ‘cultural translation’ as used by early modern historians and outlines recent work in the field in terms of thematic content and research methods. It notes how different approaches to transnational intellectual history have emerged, allowing historians of early modern Europe to draw on work not just in translation studies, literary studies, conceptual history, the history of political thought and the history of scholarship, but also in the history of print and its significance for cultural transfer. A wide range of historical research methods can help to locate translated texts more accurately in time and place, and so understand the vectors and limits of dissemination. Following this overview, the Introduction then provides a brief comment on the individual chapters in the volume, noting how early modern translations provide key evidence for a fresh understanding of the spread, adaptation, and sometimes popularisation, of political and social thinking across the major reading communities of pre-modern Europe.
