The Dissemination of Medical Practice in Late Modern Europe : The Case of Buchan’s Domestic Medicine

The aim of this study is the investigation of prefaces, introductory sections, tables of contents, indices, appendices and glossaries in the Italian and French translations of William Buchan’s Domestic Medicine (1st ed., Edinburgh, 1769). The editions under scrutiny here are the 6th in English (1779, London), the 2nd in French (1780-, Paris) and the Italian edition issued in Milan (1785-). The analysis will focus on the methodology adopted in the process of translation and adaptation, as they emerge from paratextual sections; the same sections (particularly tables of contents, indices, appendices), along with extracts from the main body, will exemplify textual and discourse features in the three languages (similarities, correspondences, differences, additions, adaptations, omissions, etc.).