John Bellenden's Livy and the Tools of Translation

This essay focuses on the earliest extant translation of Livy in the British Isles, namely John Bellenden's (c. 1495–1545x8) reworking of the first pentad into Scots. Drawing on neglected archival sources, this research posits the edition of Livy from which Bellenden was working as well as establishing the hermeneutic tools to which he turned to complete the project. By uncovering Bellenden's engagement with continental scholarship, this piece sheds further light on the links between humanists in Scotland and their European counterparts.