ANTI-CRISIS VACCINE: WHY MEDIEVALISTS TRANSLATE AND PUBLISH THEIR SOURCES (NOTES ON THE MARGINS OF THE READERS’ CONFERENCE OF THE REVUE «MIDDLE AGES»)

The paper analyzes the problem of changing the status of translation of medieval sources and the attitude to translation activities in Russian medieval studies over the last two hundred years. Throughout the XIX and most of the XX century, Russian historians, with rare exceptions, did not consider the preparation of a commented translation and its subsequent publication as an independent and self-valuable type of scientific activity, giving this area to philologists and linguists. The situation changed dramatically at the turn of the XX and XXI centuries, which, obviously, should be associated with a sharp transformation of historical science itself. In the context of the destruction of scientific methodologies, the increasing fragmentation of historical knowledge and the rapid devaluation of research developments, translation work has objectively turned out to be the most comfortable form of academic activity for historians. On the other hand, it is precisely such a scientific product that is in full demand among the mass audience today.

medieval studies, historical knowledge, translation