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dominantpoliticalandculturalpower,Frenchwasincreasinglytheintermediary
languagefortextsfromEnglish,GermanandtheLowCountries.Thispattern
wouldprevailforsometwocenturies.Bythebeginningoftheeighteenth
century,FrenchwaswidelyreadinSpain.In1759BenitoJerónimoFeijóo
complainedthatalthoughmanySpaniardscouldreadandunderstandFrench,
fewofthemcouldtranslatewell(Santoyo1987:105).Fittingly,amanualfor
translationfromFrenchintoCastilianwaswrittenbyAntoniodeCapmanyin
1776.
Allthistime,however,therewasaminorbutdirectflowfromItalianandLatin,
adirectionalitythatwasbrieflyenhancedbythe4,000orsoJesuitsexiledin
Italyfrom1767.ThetranslatorsamongthisgroupincludedJoséFranciscoIsla,
CarlosAndrés,whotranslatedthehistoryofworldliteraturethathisbrother
JuanhadwritteninItalian,andPedroMontengón,whotranslatedOssianfrom
anItalianversion.
YetthemainthreattoCastilianpuritywasnotfromJesuitsinItaly.Thereal
dangerlayintheFrenchlanguage,whichnowborerevolutionaryideals.Inthe
1770s,TomásdeIriarte,sometimeofficialtranslatorattheMinistryofStatein
Madrid,wasregardedwithsuspicionwhenhetranslatedDestouches,Voltaire,
andMolièrefortheSpanishstage.In1792,MarianoLuisdeUrquijotranslated
VoltairewithaprefacethatattackedtheInquisition,uponwhichthetranslator
enteredthediplomaticcorpsandwassenttoLondonforhisowngood.Despite
theideologicaltensions,Spainneverthelesstranslatedpredominantlyfrom
French,particularlyforthestage.Atthebeginningofthenineteenthcentury,22
ofthe28playspublishedintheTeatroNuevoEspañol,ostensiblythe‘New
SpanishTheatre’,weretranslationsoradaptations.Aprominentexampleof
thistendencywasTomásGarcíaSuelto’stranslationofLeCid,performed
successfullyinMadridin1803.Buttenyearslater,thesameGarcíaSueltohad
toleaveSpain,togetherwiththe10,000orsoafrancesados(‘Frenchified
Spaniards’)whohadsupportedtheNapoleonicinvasionoftheircountry.This
groupofexilesincludedFranciscoJavierdeBurgos(1778–1848),whomade
Horacemore‘noble’throughomissionsandsubstitutions;JuanMaríaMaury
(17721845),whopublishedinParisaninfluentialbilingualhistoricalanthology
ofCastilianpoetry,andFranciscoMartínezdelaRosa(1787–1862),whose
historicaldramaAbenHumeyawaswritteninFrenchandtranslatedinto
Castilian.
Areturntoabsolutismin1823ledtoafurtherexpulsion,thistimeoftheliberal
Romantics,whoemigratedtoEngland,FranceandtheAmericas.Between
1824and1828LondonwasacentreofSpanishintellectuallife,largelythanks
totheGermanpublisherRudolphAckermann’sdistributionoforiginaltextsand
translationsthroughoutSpanishAmerica.Amongthetranslatorsexiledin
LondonwasJoséJoaquíndeMora,whotranslatedWalterScottin1825.In
Spain,theintellectualclosurewassuchthatwhenFélixTorresAmatpublished
hisCatholictranslationoftheBiblein1826somesaidithadbeenfinancedby
EnglishProtestants(infactithadbeenprecensoredbythechurchandwas
subsidizedbytheSpanishcrown).AftertheJulyRevolutionof1830many
exiledliberalswentfromLondontoFrance,eventuallyreturningtoSpaininthe
courseofthedecade.
TranslationintoCastilianincreasedinthe1830sasaresultoffavourable
publicationlaws.Textsthathadmanyyearspreviouslybeenwrittenwerenow
translatedforthefirsttime:Diderotin1831,Rousseauin1836.Mostofthe
translationscamefromorthroughFrench.Ideasabouttranslationwerealso
remarkablyFrench,particularlywithrespecttoadaptationtotargetculture
norms.In1836MarianoJoséLarradeclaredthatthecorrecttranslationof
comediesfromFrenchshouldbe‘toseekequivalencesnotofthewordsbutof
thesituations’,adopting‘thecustomsofthecountryintowhichoneis
translating’(Santoyo1987:165).Frenchinfluencewasalsovisibleinthe
commonpreferenceforrenderingverseasprose.ByronthusenteredCastilian
fromFrenchnotasapoetbutasawriterofshortstories.Translationsinthis
periodweregenerallyfree,hurried,andmadewithaneyetoaudience
acceptability.
Fromasearlyas1834translationalsoplayedaroleintherevivalofCatalanas
aliterarylanguage,oftenthroughindirectworkandadaptationsforthetheatre.
However,itwasnotuntilthe1880sthattranslatorsreallyenhancedthestatusof
Catalan,settingupastrongtranslationculturethatwaslatertobeinterruptedby
theFrancodictatorship.
Asthenineteenthcenturyprogressed,Spainlostitsexternalcoloniesand
suffered