This study investigates self-translation – the process of producing a second version of a text in another language – as it relates to three pairs of mathematical works created in Latin and French in mid-seventeenth-century France: Pierre Hérigone’s Cursus mathematicus and Cours mathématique, Marin Mersenne’s Harmonicorum libri and Harmonie universelle, and Blaise Pascal’s treatises on the Arithmetic Triangle. The investigation uses case-study methodology and self-translation research as a framework to examine why and how the three scholars produced bilingual versions of their texts, and does so against the background of the most significant contemporary social and historical factors. As research into pre-twentieth-century non-literary self-translation, it examines material and practices that have largely fallen outside the most frequently investigated areas of self-translation research.
The study shows that the most common reasons for writing bilingual works in France during the period in question were related to the emergence of new and changing audiences. This was particularly attributable to the changing relationship between Latin and French: the early seventeenth century was a time of flux, where French was gradually taking over from Latin in French scholarly writing and was the language of the scientific cabinets, attended by an increasingly educated populace, while, at the same time, Latin was consolidating its position as the language of the pan-European Republic of Letters. Many French scholars who wished to maximise their audiences, both within France and across Europe, chose to write their works in Latin, slightly more opted for French, while others, including the case-study scholars, chose to compose their books in both languages. Other, more individual factors were involved in the case-study authors’ decision to self-translate, including the desire to develop ideas, teach mathematics and compose a significant musical work for as large an audience as possible. The different types of text composed by the three mathematicians and their differing motivations led to a range of approaches to self-translation and a variety of outcomes. Some features of the bilingual works are common to all three case studies, including the use of French mathematical terminology derived from its Latin equivalents, a desire to accommodate different audiences for the texts in the two languages, and the use of rhetoric, including ‘mathematical rhetoric’, in both Latin and French
