The Self-translation as a Composition Resource: Andrés Laguna and his two Books about the Plague

Abstract

Medical doctor Andrés Laguna (ca. 1511-1558) published a short treatise on the plague in Latin (Estrasbourg 1542). During his stay in the Netherlands, he edited (Amberes 1556) a new text to prevent and combat the pestilence, but this time he did it in Spanish, as it was directed to a Spanish speaking cortisan public. For this purpose, Laguna reuses some materials: he does not translate his work literaly, but he uses an intertextual transfer with a different level of literality and adaptation. This way the whole process is obscured, making the result appear as a new work. Therefore, we are observing and analysing how and why one author would write in vernacular what he had already written and published in Latin, without making a declared translation and adding to it enough changes and ornaments.