Academic Translator Vasily Teplov

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to outline the career of Vasily Teplov during his time at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, with a special focus on his approach to translation. The first attempts at translating foreign books at the Russian Academy of Sciences were undertaken shortly after its foundation, and the number of translated books increased significantly in a short period of time. Because there were so few translators at the Academy, issues relating to the environment in which their training was carried out deserve special attention. Our focus on Teplov is motivated by the fact that he prepared a translation of the New French Grammar, the first Russian printed grammar manual of the French language; his translation was published in 1752. The conditions and circumstances in which the New French Grammar was prepared are important in establishing translation activities at the Academy in the middle of the 18th century. Our study is based on published and unpublished materials stored in the collections of the St. Petersburg branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. As we do not encounter any references to Teplov in documents from the Academy before the early 1760s, our study of Teplov’s life and activity does not purport to be complete—indeed, it proposes further research in this field. We also provide some pieces of information regarding the life and customs of academic society in the middle of the 18th century.