Lodovico Antonio Muratori’s work in Hispanic America: Observations on the Bogotan translation of Della forza della fantasia umana (1745) and its translator, Francisco Martínez (1736-1794)

Abstract

The main object of this study is to introduce the first known Spanish translation ever published in Hispanic American territories of a work by Lodovico Antonio Muratori: De la fuerza de la fantasía humana (Santafé de Bogotá, 1793). This paper aims at describing and commenting on the linguistic and theoretical ideas about translation expressed by its translator Francisco Martínez in the various paratexts to his books, as well as highlighting the historical and cultural

circumstances in which Muratori’s text was first translated in Spanish America.