Chapter 3 - Italian Studies and Cultural Translation at Holland House

Summary

After considering Romantic-period theories of interlinguistic translation and their links with ‘cultural’ translation, this chapter examines the nexus of sociability and ideology characterizing Holland House’s Italophiles. A particularly emblematic case, the Italianist specialists gravitating around this salon and coterie translated and appropriated Italian texts in accordance with Whig opposition to Tory foreign policy and as a way of supporting patriotic fervour and anti-Austrian politics in the Italian peninsula. Structured as a case study, this chapter focuses on the usually overlooked yet singularly relevant figure of Barbarina Brand, Lady Dacre, and her collaborations with Henry Brougham and Ugo Foscolo over the translation of Italian verse (most importantly, for the latter’s Essays on Petrarch). In this way, it illuminates the multifaceted practice of translating in the context of the Hollands’ cosmopolitan circle, and its role in promoting their cultural connections and intervention in Italian politics. By the same token, it offers new insights into the relevance of translation for the cultural and ideological debate in post-Waterloo Britain.