Outward bound: women translators and scientific travel writing, 1780–1800

As the Enlightenment drew to a close, translation had gradually acquired an increasingly important role in the international circulation and transmission of scientific knowledge. Yet comparatively little attention has been paid to the translators responsible for making such accounts accessible in other languages, some of whom were women. In this article I explore how European women cast themselves as intellectually enquiring, knowledgeable and authoritative figures in their translations. Focusing specifically on the genre of scientific travel writing, I investigate the narrative strategies deployed by women translators to mark their involvement in the process of scientific knowledge-making. These strategies ranged from rhetorical near-invisibility, driven by women's modest marginalization of their own public engagement in science, to the active advertisement of themselves as intellectually curious consumers of scientific knowledge. A detailed study of Elizabeth Helme's translation of the French ornithologist Françoise le Vaillant's Voyage dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique [Voyage into the Interior of Africa] (1790) allows me to explore how her reworking of the original text for an Anglophone reading public enabled her to engage cautiously – or sometimes more openly – with questions regarding how scientific knowledge was constructed, for whom and with which aims in mind.

L’illustration marginale d’un ouvrage profane : étude du manuscrit Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, français 95, xiiie siècle (1290)

BnF fr. 95 is a late 13th century manuscript containing Arthurian romances and other fictional and didactic texts. The Estoire del saint Graal and Merlin section is the most highly illuminated, with a rich marginal iconography, an unusual feature in the illustration of lay works and in these texts’ manuscript tradition. This article shows how in Merlin and its Vulgate Sequel marginal scenes overlap with widespread subjects in courtly and chivalric vernacular romances, in contrast with Latin and religious works. The reuse of similar patterns in principal and marginal miniatures, examined in the episode of the Battle of Danablaise, where King Arthur fights the Saxon King Rion, highlights the need for a comprehensive reading of text and images, taking into account the mise en page and the different levels of illustration in the manuscript.

Climate and construction delays: case study in Chile

Purpose – Construction projects usually suffer delays, and the causes of these delays and its cost overruns have been widely discussed, the weather being one of the most recurrent. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of climate on standard construction work activities through a case study. Design/methodology/approach – By studying the extent at which some weather variables impede outdoor work from being effectively executed, new maps and tables for planning for delays are presented. In addition, a real case regarding the construction of several bridges in southern Chile is analyzed. Findings – Few studies have thoroughly addressed the influences of major climatic agents on the most common outdoor construction activities. The method detailed here provides a first approximation for construction planners to assess to what extent construction productivity will be influenced by the climate. Research limitations/implications – Although this study was performed in Chile, the simplified method proposed is entirely transferable to any other country, however, other weather or combinations of weather variables could be needed in other environments or countries. Practical implications – The implications will help reducing the negative social, economic and environmental outcomes that usually emerge from project delays. Originality/value – Climatic data were processed using extremely simple calculations to create a series of quantitative maps and tables that would be useful for any construction planner to decide the best moment of the year to start a project and, if possible, where to build it.