Translating Musical Instruments in Fifteenth-Century Valencia

Abstract

Religious texts present abundant opportunities for exploration as regards musical terminology, as well as the actual use of instruments. Research has previously focused, mainly, on the presence within these texts of lists bearing witness to the degree of a given set of instruments’ dissemination, though lists represent only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the wealth of musical information brought together in this kind of text. This article analyses a number of quotations referring to musical instruments as found in Catalan vernacular translations of the Bible, and focuses on their presence within two interconnected works, namely, Isabel de Villena’s Vita Christi and Joan Roís de Corella’s Lo cartoixà, the latter being the translation of one of the former’s principal sources. It thus becomes possible to see how different translators and different authors treat the Holy Scripture and how the instruments’ terminology is adapted to different ends.