Call for papers

The translation of Latin texts into modern languages has played a crucial role in shaping linguistic and cultural traditions across the world. At the same time, ancient reflections on translation within Latin culture itself constituted a foundational moment in the development of Western translation theory, laying the groundwork for an ongoing dialogue between imitation and creative appropriation. Over the centuries, translation of Latin texts has served as a privileged channel through which concepts, values, and stylistic or literary features have been transmitted not only across languages but also across historical periods, intellectual systems, and worldviews (cf. Dronke 1965-66, Copeland 1991, Folena 2021).

Building on the shift in perspective brought about by the so-called ‘cultural turn’ in Translation Studies, which foregrounded the historical and cultural dimensions underlying every act of translation (cf. Bassnett–Lefevere 1990, Snell-Hornby 2016), the translation of Latin texts into modern languages can be seen as a multidimensional activity in which linguistic mediation, cultural negotiation, and cognitive processes have long worked together in shaping meaning and reception. This reflection also involves the didactic sphere, where the translation of Latin continues to play a fundamental – though at times reinterpreted or contested – role as a tool for understanding how languages and the cultural systems they express function. In more recent years, the rise of artificial intelligence and deep learning systems has added new dimensions to this picture (cf. O’Hagan 2020), prompting us to rethink once again what it means to translate, interpret, and process Latin in relation to the languages and the linguistic technologies of our present.

Considering these developments, this conference aims to explore the translation of Latin texts into modern languages – both natural and computer-based – by combining theoretical, historical, and cultural perspectives on translation. The goal is to bring together scholars from translation studies, classics, modern languages, comparative literature, linguistics, and digital humanities, to foster an interdisciplinary discussion of how the translation of Latin continues to shape the cultural and intellectual landscapes of the contemporary world.

We invite all proposals that address the topic of translation of Latin texts into modern languages from a variety of perspectives, including but not limited to the following areas:

• Challenges arising from the translation of Latin into modern languages – such as linguistic categories absent from either source or target language, stylistic and rhetorical features, or translation of realia.
• Case studies of Latin translations that have played a key role in the development of a given national literature or intellectual tradition.
• Instances of ideological or cultural manipulation of Latin texts in their modern translations.
• Comparative analyses of multiple translations of the same Latin text into a given language.
• The impact of digital humanities, machine translation, and artificial intelligence on the translation and interpretation of Latin texts.
• Didactic perspectives on the use of AI-based tools for the automatic translation of Latin texts.
• Pedagogical perspectives on translation as a hermeneutic tool for learning Latin.
• Cognitive approaches to translation and their relevance to the study of classical languages.

Contributions focusing on less commonly studied languages and traditions are particularly welcome.

We invite abstracts of up to 300 words for 20-minute papers (followed by a 10-minute discussion). Abstracts may be submitted in Italian, English, French, German, or Spanish; however, the working languages of the conference will be Italian and English. Submissions will be subject to blind review by the scientific committee. Please send your proposal to translating.latin@gmail.com by 15 January 2026, attaching an anonymous abstract and including the following information in the body of the email: paper title, author’s name, affiliation, and email address for correspondence. Notification of acceptance will be sent by 15 February 2026.