Some Notes on the Translation of De liberis educandis Made by S. I. Pisarev

Abstract

The article covers the translation of Plutarch’s treatise De liberis educandis made by S. Pisarev, which was the first Russian translation of Plutarch’s works from ancient Greek (1771). In trying to find out what editions were used by Pisarev for his oeuvre, the author focuses on some particular features of his translations, such as the use of italics in marking the poetic quotations. Though the marking is not uniform, its style, as compared to the editions and Latin translations of the treatise in the 16th — early18th century, allows supposing that Pisarev used a bilingual edition, either within a collection of Moralia or as a separate book. Theoretically, seven such editions could have been employed. Further analysis of variae lectiones in these editions as reflected in Pisarev’s translation leads to the conclusion that we have to choose between two editions that is, by Rivandrus (1583) and an authoritative Frankfurt ed. of 1599 reproduced twice in the 17th century (1620, and then 1624, in Paris). Since the only discernible difference between them turns to be an inverted word order in a poetic quotation, the author analyses the word order in Pisarev’s text to finally decide in favour of the Frankfurt edition.

Keywords:

early editions of Plutarch, De liberis educandis, Stepan Pisarev, reception of Plutarch in Russia, sources of Pisarev’s translation