Seneca’s spirit in Basque: An example of Larramendi’s influence and apologetic translation in the 18th-century Soule

Abstract

This work is devoted to a philosophical text translated into Basque by the Mauleonese Knight of Bela in the 18th century. First of all, in order to put this unpublished manuscript into context, I have provided some details on the relation between Bela and Manuel Larramendi, showing how the first was imbued by the second’s linguistic ideas, but completing them with data from Soule. Then, I have claimed that this text belongs to a special subgender of apologetic translation in which the reader does not know the target language, and in which the form gains the whole relevance upon the content. Last but not least, I have provided the text edition, including linguistic comments and explanations.