Did you know that the first French-English dictionary was published in 1580, the Spanish-English in 1591, the French-German in 1596, and the Italian-English in 1598? The Swedes had to wait until 1694 for the publication of a French-Swedish dictionary, while the English-Swedish dictionary was completed in 1734, and the German-Swedish dictionary was finished in 1749. Before translators had the ability to find the correct translation in a dictionary, they would seek help in Latin when struggling with a word or rely on a native speaker of the target language for assistance.
It is also interesting to note that translation was primarily done by women, and this tradition continued into the early 20th century, when 40% of literary translations were produced by female translators (Pym, 1998: 144). (If anyone has verified data on current percentages and the ratio of male to female translators, it would be valuable to know.)
Here are some of the remarkable women who contributed significantly to intercultural understanding through translation:
Italian Giuseppa-Eleonora Barbapiccola, Polish Maria Sipayllowna, Germans Eleonora von Sporck and Louise Gottsched, Danes Dorothea Biehl and Brigitte Thott, Swedish Catharina Gyllengrip, French Genevieve Chapelain and Anne Dacier, as well as Englishwomen Margaret Beaufort, Aphra Behn, Elisabeth Gary, and many others.
