ABSTRACT
The serious shortcoming in translation history, where many fields are admittedly so obscure that they tend to be of concern to only a handful of similarly obscure experts. This chapter discusses some principles when dealing with the role of past translators and translation theorists, since importance concerns both the subject and the object of translation history. The misconstrued proper name not only concerned the patron of the translation but also hid the identity of the more likely translator, someone called Avendauth, whom D'Alverny suggests was Jewish. The description certainly belongs to the French 1980s. Yet it applies uncannily well to Gideon Toury's research interests, which should indeed upset many of those who read and finance translation studies. It might also apply to D'Alverny's archaeology, the findings of which were first published in a collective volume where almost everyone else sang the praises of identifiably Hispanic translators.
