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Part of
Towards an Atlas of the History of Interpreting: Voices from around the world
Edited by Lucía Ruiz Rosendo and Jesús Baigorri-Jalón
[Benjamins Translation Library 159] 2023
► pp. 212–237

Chapter 9
Domesticating dragomans

Affect and textual circulations between the hyperlocal and the trans-imperial

| University of Toronto , Canada

In the summer of 1660 the Venetian bailate (diplomatic residency in Istanbul) was shaken by an attempted work stoppage involving its dragomans (diplomatic translator-interpreters). This essay situates the aborted work stoppage in relation to dragomans’ deep embedding in Istanbul’s courtly society, their trans-imperial relational resources, and Venetian efforts to mold dragomans into loyal political subjects. It further considers how the disparate archival traces of this singular event underscore tensions between loyalty, secrecy, and dragomans’ writerly habitus that often breached the bailate’s affective and mediatized boundaries. In conclusion, the essay considers how dragomans’ subjectivities and practices of mediation were shaped through emergent technologies of governmentality, such as the controlled circulation of particular knowledge and bodies inside and outside the space of the bailate.

Keywords: dragomans, Venice, Istanbul, early modern diplomacy, secrecy, loyalty, patronage, circulatory regimes, trans-imperial subjects
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Dragomans and diplomacy in early modern Istanbul
  • Rival dynasties
  • Profession, family, household
  • Controlled publicity
  • Official version(ing)
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Works cited
Published online: 22 February 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.159.09rot
References

Works cited

Archival series consulted

Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Venice

Bailo a Costantinopoli
Collegio, Risposte di dentro
Inquisitori di Stato
Senato, Dispacci Costantinopoli

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