Authority and innovation in Luis de Zapata’s Ars poetica translation

Abstract

Horace’ Ars poetica experienced up to four different Spanish translations, adaptations and/or scholium in the last decade of the 16th century: Vicente Espinel’s (1591), Luis de Zapata’s (1592), Juan Villén de Viedma’s (1599) and Jaime Juan Falcó’s (1600). Luis de Zapata’s translation, published in Lisbon, tried to be the most faithful to the original Latin version and also it tried to respect, as far as possible, Horace’s main use of language theory. Zapata’s idea on the translation process anticipates some further ideas which did not yet have strong roots in Spain. His translation foreshadows some of them but they did not find too much enthusiasm among his contemporaries. This paper aims to review this largely unknown Horatian translation.