On the role of translation in the stabilization of national scientific cultures

Translation is usually understood primarily as a mediating movement between different cultural and linguistic spheres. Recent translation studies, on the other hand, have often emphasised that translations not only facilitate the crossing of national borders, but also contribute significantly to the establishment of the very borders they subsequently overcome. The same phenomenon can be observed in the emerging sciences. This seems all the more remarkable given that in view of the decidedly universalist self-conception of the sciences, one would hardly expect translations to have their role in the stabilisation of national scholarly spheres. The present article aims to show how translation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was not only a precondition for the emergence of science as a transnational project, but also contributed significantly to the development of national scientific communities and cultures.