Abstract
Inviting me to participate in this book, Federico Federici suggested I discuss the man Europeans called ‘Leo Africanus’, the subject of my recent book. A Muslim and North African diplomat, Hasan al-Wazzan had been captured by Christian pirates in 1518 and spent some nine years in Italy. During his stay, among other activities, he wrote in Italian a much read and much translated Description of Africa, thereby taking on — as Professor Federici put it — an ‘accidental role as “functional” translator, [an] erudite scholar who had not planned to act as informant’.
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© 2014 Natalie Zemon Davis
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Davis, N.Z. (2014). ‘Leo Africanus’ and His Worlds of Translation. In: Federici, F.M., Tessicini, D. (eds) Translators, Interpreters, and Cultural Negotiators. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137400048_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137400048_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-48604-5
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