Servius translation project: need advice

[David Wilson-Okamura]

Last May I mentioned that I was working on a translation of Servius. We had a good discussion of several related topics (a parallel project in French, Cameron's book on the so-called pagan revival, whether to include the DS material), and I made a start on Geo. I. Progress has been slow -- last year I had a heavier teaching load and more committee work than the year before -- but I have been exploring how to make it sustainable. Here's what I have in mind:

1. The translation will be published online. Advantages of an online translation: (a) it can be published incrementally; (b) it can be published cheaply; (c) it will be crawled by Google, so that scholars will discover it who weren't thinking about Servius; (d) it can be corrected quickly.

2. The translation will be open access.

3. The translation will be peer-reviewed.

The tricky part, as I see it, is #3. I talked with Joshua Eckhart, who set up the British Virginia archive at Virginia Commonwealth University, and he suggested that I recruit an editorial board, whose job it would be to supervise the review. Meaning, by picking the board members I would _not_ be picking the reviewers.

What would this look like in practice? I -- or someone else who joins the translation team -- would submit a section of the text to the editorial board (for example, Book I of Servius' commentary on the Georgics, which I started working on last summer). The board, then, would decide on a couple of reviewers, send the text out for review, and evaluate the reports. If the board approves, the new section goes online. If it doesn't, the text goes back to the translator for revision (or is reassigned, or goes into a Black Hole).

Some questions for the group:

1. Is this structure workable? I can imagine something with more layers and more people, but complicated structures have a way of breaking down and this is a long-term project. Keep in mind also that no one is getting paid for this (except as credit for research or professional service).

2. If the overall structure is sound, how big should the board be? Would two senior scholars be enough? Or one, since most journals have one editor and everything would be evaluated by at least two reviewers?

3. Would it be kosher for board members to conduct some of the reviews themselves?

4. What level or kind of review is appropriate for a translation?

A related question: are there other scholars who would like to work on this project with me, as translators? A year ago, I wanted to do the whole translation myself, but for reasons I can't explain that doesn't seem important anymore.

[Perkell, Christine]

Dear David

For your own purposes, wouldn't it be good to have two or three Latin colleagues or friends be the first readers? In that way you could have informal and forthcoming discussions before submitting the work (in progress) to some editor or board. Also, if it is published incrementally online, you would probably get more suggestions and corrections than you need or want! Finally, if the magnitude of the project seems daunting, maybe you can solicit participation in the translation from Servius fans online? Even this list.

Meanwhile, courage! (Fr.) It's a great project.

Christine Perkell

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[David Wilson-Okamura]

Thank you, Christine. More translators would make the work go faster, and we could help each other. What I've learned so far is that (a) I don't know enough about astrology and (b) it's the simple words (like "constat") that are hardest to translate.