Proto-Humanist Greek

Abstract Focusing on the works of John Lydgate (c.1370–1449/50?), this chapter shows that the translation of Ancient Greek into English has roots at least as far back as the early fifteenth century. Lydgate was not alone among his contemporaries for being interested in the idea of underlying Greek sources (including, sometimes, ‘fake’ Greek sources). Lydgate was more unusual, however, for his experiments with translating Greek into English. These experiments were circumscribed by Lydgate’s extremely limited knowledge of Greek: he worked exclusively with Greek in transliteration. The chapter nevertheless suggests that Lydgate’s Greek translations are ‘proto-humanist’, and they anticipate themes which characterize translations considered later in this book. These themes include the circulation of Greek in fragments and the interwoven sacred and secular contexts in which Greek texts were often read.