Early Academic Periodical Translation

David Banks is Emeritus Professor of English Linguistics at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale, France. He has degrees in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge (UK), and in English from the Université de Nantes (France), where he also obtained his doctorate. He has an HDR from the Université de Bordeaux 2. He is former Head of the English Department, Director of ERLA (Equipe de Recherche en Linguistique Appliquée) and Chairman of AFLSF (Association Française de la Linguistique Systémique Fonctionnelle). He is author or editor of over 30 books and has published over 130 academic articles. His publication The Development of Scientific English, Linguistic features and historical context (Equinox), won the ESSE Language and Linguistics book award 2010. His research interests include the diachronic and synchronic study of scientific text and the application of Systemic Functional Linguistics to English and French.

• 1. Preamble.- 2. Historical considerations.- 3. A linguistic framework: a systemic functional approach.- 4. The texts and their translations.- 5. The first translations (Oldenburg - de Sallo 1665).- 6. Oldenburg and Gallois, 1666-1674. The Journal des Sçavans as a source of copy.- 7. Oldenburg and de la Roque, 1675-1677. Building on a firm foundation.- 8. Grew and de la Roque, 1677-1678. Continung Oldenburg’s heritage.- 9. Halley and de la Roque, 1686. Waning interest in translations.- 10. Sloane and Cousin, 1696-1700. The end of an era.- 11. The overall picture.- 12. Translations in the Journal des Sçavans.- 13. Final thoughts.