La biblioteca multilingüe de Joaquín V. González y la traducción de los Rubaiyat

In this article we will offer a few lines to reflect about the importance of multilingual libraries and the learning of foreign languages in relation with Joaquín V. González’s work as a minister of public instruction, teacher and language professional, in an attempt to shine light on a rarely studied aspect of his work, his side as a translator. Concretely, we will search to relate the published production, the manuscripts, the marginalia and the formation of Joaquín V. González’s personal library in order to analize the reading, writing and translation conditions of the Rubaiyat from Omar Jayam, analysing it from the English edition by Edward FitzGerald. In this way, we will try to relate the different modes of accessing books and languages, of writing, translating, and so, approach culture from the other in Joaquín V. González’s work, who is a central personality for the configuration of humanitarian practices in modern Argentina.