A place of their own

This article explores the uses of translation in the production and dissemination of knowledge by Portuguese-speaking exiles in nineteenth-century Paris. The discussion focuses on two key figures: Caetano Lopes de Moura (Bahia, 1780 — Paris, 1860), a Brazilian physician who translated from French into Portuguese historical sources on Brazil available in France, as well as medical and geographical books; and the Viscount of Santarém (Lisbon, 1791 — Paris, 1856), who edited Portuguese-language manuscripts, rewriting them in modern Portuguese, and published works on history, geography, and cartography on Portugal and Lusophone Africa in Portuguese, and self-translated these works into French. Arguably, these translations produced by two very different intellectuals created new forms of scholarship in exile. On the one hand, they changed the landscape of Portuguese scientific language by importing alien concepts and thus creating an experience of foreignisation. On the other hand, the collaborative work involved in translating historical and geographical source texts into (modern) Portuguese led to the formation of a network of displaced intellectuals, thus creating new spaces for translation, the production of knowledge and collaboration.