Literatura ad usum delphini: José de Viera y Clavijo y su traducción de los cuentos para niños de Arnaud Berquin / Literatura ad usum delphini: José de Viera y Clavijo’s Translation of Arnaud Berquin’s Short Stories for Children

Abstract

José de Viera y Clavijo (Los Realejos, Tenerife, 1731–Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1813) is the author of the first translation into Spanish, made in 1784, of a selection of the tales and dramas written for children published by Arnaud Berquin (Bordeaux, 1747-París, 1791) in L’ami des enfants, a mensile publication that has got twelfe numbers between 1782 and 1783, and that were, almost the whole collection, translations of German, Dutch and English authors, extracted from publications as Kleine Kinderbibliothek (1779-1784), by Campe, or Der Kinderfreund (1776-1782), by Christian Felix Weisse, between others. The thanslations/adaptationes made by Arnaud Berquin were very free, and they show an evident accomodation to the french culture and to the enlightenment philosophy of this author. Nowadays, the enlightenment age author Viera y Clavijo, an advanced author and a expert and prolific translator, took many liberties in translating the Berquin’s Tales. In this article, are shown some of the important changes introduced by the the spanish translator in his versions and they are explained in the cultural and ideological context of the Spain in the 18th century.

Keywords

• eighteenth century literature
• children’s literature
• literary translation
• ami des enfants (1782-1783)
• cuentos de niños que instruyen divirtiendo (1784)