Fashioning the Queen - Elizabeth I as Patron of Translations

The present paper aims to explore the role of Queen Elizabeth I as literary patron and dedicatee of translations by focusing on the dedication that precedes Geoffrey Fenton’s rendering of Francesco Guicciardini’s Storia d’Italia. Fenton’s extensive dedication to the Queen is extremely revealing of the manner in which the system of patronage was understood in Elizabethan England. Moreover, it facilitates our understanding of the translator’s role and position at the Elizabethan court, of the political and cultural implications of choosing the Queen as the patron of a translation.