Anne Campbell

Printed Writings 1500–1640: Series I, Part Four, Volume 4

Theresa Lamy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351958158
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism for Comparative Literature
• Index: Literature

The religious, historical and rhetorical significance of the Confessions written by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, can hardly be overstated: the book is one of the unifying texts of Western Christianity and a seminal work for Roman Catholic Europe. The publication in 1622 of Duchess Anne Campbell's selections in Spanish of parts of Augustine's Confessions has been little remarked, in part at least because of the obscurity of her feat. Yet Campbell's work is worthy of attention because of the evidence it gives of one woman's education and literary interests.

EL ALMA del incomparable SAN AVGVSTIN SACADA DEL CVERPO DE SVS CONFESSIONES. Colegida por la illustrissima Señora Doña ANNA Condessa de Argyl. Dirigida a la Serenissima Señora Doña ISABEL CLARA EVGENIA Infanta d’Espagna is reproduced, by permission, from a bound volume at the Universiteit Gent Centrale Bibliotheek (shelfmark Gent, Universiteitbibliotheek, R 1459). The textblock measures 110 × 80 mm.

Word that is difficult to read:

113.8: tu

EL ALMA del incomparable SAN AVGVSTIN SACADA DEL CVERPO DE SVS CONFESSIONES. Colegida por la illustrissima Señora Doña ANNA Condessa de Argyl. Dirigida a la Serenissima Señora Doña ISABEL CLARA EVGENIA Infanta d’Espagna

Campbell’s dedicatory letter, addressed ‘A SV ALTEZA La Serenissima Señora Infante Doña Isabel Clara Evgenia Nvestra Señora. Señora (to The Most Serene Lady Infante Isabel Clara Our Lady. My Lady’ [my translation]) merits transcription here since it affords us the fervent voice of the countess herself:

I have extracted the soul of Saint Augustine from the body of his Confessions, with the desire that the saint, for being holy and incomparable, may have a most fortunate life in our Highness’s royal hands. And your Highness being a Princess, it is just that I render you the protection and aid that you deserve; Your Highness honouring the saint in this world, as he from the other will bestow favour upon and magnify your Highness. As far as I am concerned, my debt to both of you is in a sense infinite. And so the very great veneration that I have for the Saint and the very great obligation I feel toward your Highness give me not only the will but also the courage to offer you this token of my esteem. Affirming that I continually am and will be praying to God, may he watch over your very serene person the long and happy years of my desire, since Christianity has need of it. From Brussels the of August 1622. The Countess of Argyll (a3–a4; my translation)

A comparison of Campbell’s translation with two contemporary Spanish translations of Augustine’s Confessions by Sebastian Toscano (1555) and Pedro de Ribadeneyra (1609) would seem to indicate that Campbell’s was a compilation of selected passages from an existing translation rather than an original translation. While Campbell’s differs considerably from Toscano’s in vocabulary and grammatical structure, it is almost identical to Ribadeneyra’s. Given the latter’s important role in the establishment of Jesuit schools in Flanders as well as his part in the papal mission to Brussels in 1557–58 and the Archdukes’ support of the Counter-Reformation for political and religious reasons, his work would most likely have been well known in court.

Campbell’s collection of excerpts is as interesting for what she chooses to omit of Augustine’s Confessions as for what she includes. There are no biographical facts, no stories or anecdotes, not even a mention of Augustine’s mother Monica. Nor are there quotations from the sections dealing with philosophy, psychology, literature, grammar or biblical exegesis. Instead, each page of her volume contains a single quotation – most prayers or brief meditations that can stand on their own when taken out of context – with the book and chapter of the original indicated at the top of the page. Although excerpted from one author, the volume is reminiscent of the verse miscellany of her youth, with passages selected from only one book.

A brief glance at what is probably the best-known declaration from Augustine:

fecisti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum, donee requiescat in te (Confessions I, 1)

[You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you (my translation)]

shows clearly the differences between the Toscano and Ribadeneyra translations and the similarity of Campbell’s to Ribadeneyra’s.

tu nos hiziste para ti y nuestro coracon no sossiega hasta que en ti descanse (Toscano)

[You have made us for yourself, and our heart is not calm until it rests in you (my translation)]

nos criastes para vos, y nuestro coracon anda siempre desassossegado, hasta que se quiete y descase en vos (Ribadeneyra)

[You have created us for yourself, and our heart is always restless until it quiets itself and rests in you (my translation)]

Criástes nos Señor para Vos, y nuestro coracon anda siempre desassossegado hasta que se quiete, y descanse en Vos (Campbell)

[You have created us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is always restless until it quiets itself and rests in you (my translation)]

In addition to differences in vocabulary, the most obvious difference is the use of the familiar tu in addressing God, used throughout the Toscano translation, as opposed to the formal vosotros found in both Ribadeneyra and Campbell. (Since Campbell picks up the quotation in the middle of a sentence and uses it as the first quotation of the volume, the insertion of “señor” [Lord] to indicate who is being addressed hardly constitutes a change from the Ribadeneyra text.)

EL ALMA del incomparable SAN AVGVSTIN SACADA DEL CVERPO DE SVS CONFESSIONES. Colegida por la illustrissima Señora Doña Anna Condessa de Argyl. Dirigida a la Serenissima Señora Doña ISABEL CLARA EVGENIA Infanta d’Espagna was published in 1622 in Antwerp by Gerard Wolschaten, in five copies, printed on vellum. There...