Vondel on translation

This essay attempts to gain insight into seventeenth-century conceptions of literary translation in the Low Countries by looking at one of its central figures, Joost van den Vondel. The emphasis will be on the terms of Vondel's discourse on translation as much as on the nature of the views he expounds. The observations that are offered are both preliminary and provisional. Only further study will show to what extent Vondel's approach to matters of translation can be regarded as representative

Huygens on translation

The tercentenary of the death of Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687) presents a convenient occasion to trace the views held by this versatile and multilingual writer on the subject of translation. A first inventory of Huygens' pronouncements on the matter is all that will be attempted here. The choice of Huygens is not dictated by commemorative considerations alone. Both the contemporary appreciation of his work as a translator ? notably of John Donne ? and the fact that, as in Vondel's case, some of Huygens' comments on translation are echoed and occasionally challenged by other translators, indicate that his approach to the subject is sufficiently central to be treated as a point of reference