1. Ancient Translational Style: What Can Stylometry tell us
Matthew Munson
GCDH and DARIAH

2. The Questions
How much of the New Testament did St. Jerome translate into Latin?
Can Stylometry show us whether Jerome or Rufinus was a truer translator of Origen of Alexandria?

3. St. Jerome and the Vulgate
~340 AD – 420 AD
Latin Vulgate translation
Pope Damasus 383
Finished “revision” of Gospels 384
Translated the Psalter and several other books from Greek
Translated the whole OT from Hebrew (finished 406)
But what about Acts-Revelation in the NT?

4. The Stylistic Problem Question: Data: Method:
Can we determine whether Jerome translated the rest of the NT using stylometry?
Data:
Latin texts of the Vulgate including the Psalter translated both from Greek and from Hebrew
Method:
Used the stylo script for R-Statistics from Maciej Eder and Jan Rybicki

5. The Results – Eureka?

6. The Results – Hmmm?

7. The Translation of Origen of Alexandria
Origen – 184 AD – 253 AD
Most important Christian theologian before Augustine
Was anathematized in 6th century, works destroyed
Latin translations of St. Jerome and Rufinus of Aquileia very important

8. The Stylistic Problem Question: Data: Method:
Can we determine whether Jerome or Rufinus was a more exact translator of Origen using stylometry?
Data:
Gathered as many original and translated Origenic texts from the two authors as possible (24 from Jerome, 11 from Rufinus)
Method:
Again used the stylo script for R-Statistics from Maciej Eder and Jan Rybicki

9. Background – Jan Rybicki and Translation Style

10. Results – hmmm?

11. Or, shown another way…

12. Jerome – Original vs. Translation

13. Rufinus – Original vs. Translation

14. Where do I go from here? Jerome NT: Jerome vs. Rufinus
Compare decisive words (Eder-Rybicki Zeta)
I expect it is simply genre, not translator style
Jerome vs. Rufinus
Compare Jerome’s and Rufinus’ translations to Origen’s originals
Need to compare Greek to Latin
We have very few texts that exist in both Greek and Latin, so not a comparison of translations but of style