Un caso di traduzione: l'incontro tra Luciano e Alberti

Mattioli's thought about translation has both a historical and a theoretical aspect. Lucianism – as aesthetic, critic and philological-literary phenomenon – is the sign of the continuity of a style of thought which is different in every age within which it is received. In particular, the meeting between Lucian and Alberti is the most important of humanism, before the relationship between Erasmus and Lucian. Moreover, from a theoretical point of view, Mattioli prefers a phenomenological approach and asks himself "what is the sense of translating?". In his opinion, poetics and rhetoric are the essential structures of a translation: this takes into account his specific literary genre and the conception of the translator's mother tongue. Even from this point of view, a translation appears as a way to state an opinion in a given time span, to examine a personal relationship with history. In history, a translation is a way to propose responsibly practical models, which are qualitatively original in their difference. If the translation merely aims to become acceptable for the target culture the art work becomes a simple product.