The limits of medieval translation: Juan de Mena’s use of the Imago mundi in the Laberinto de Fortuna

Abstract

This article examines a case of medieval adaptation which is not usually considered as a translation but forms part of a translation continuum in that is loosely adapts its base text into a different context through the insertion of translated extracts into a new narrative. Such ‘translation’ results in an interplay between rewriting and respect for authority which produces new works which are paradoxically both original and derivative at the same time. A particularly illustrative case in that regard is the insertion of translated extracts from the geographical section of the twelfth-century Latin encyclopaedia Imago mundi into vernacular works of different genres. This article takes as its case study the incorporation of Imago mundi material into Juan de Mena’s Laberinto de Fortuna