This volume revisits Genette's definition of the printed book's liminal
devices, or paratexts, as 'thresholds of interpretation' by focussing
specifically on translations produced in Britain in the early age of
print (1473-1660). At a time when translation played a major role in
shaping English and Scottish literary culture, paratexts afforded
translators and their printers a privileged space in which to advertise
their activities, display their social and ideological affiliations,
influence literary tastes, and fashion Britain's representations of the
cultural 'other'.
Written by an international team of scholars of translation and material
culture, the ten essays in the volume examine the various material
shapes, textual forms, and cultural uses of paratexts as markers (and
makers) of cultural exchange in early modern Britain.
The collection will be of interest to scholars of early modern
translation, print, and literary culture, and, more broadly, to those
studying the material and cultural aspects of text production and
circulation in early modern Europe.