simone caffari

simone caffari – Translator

English to Italian translator, 20-year experience and publications in history and social sciences, a passion for music, fiction and folklore

Overview

I started working in translation by bringing together a great variety of interests and a passion for my native Italian and English, the language I have always felt closest to. I specialise in the social sciences thanks to my studies in Italy (History) and the UK (Social Anthropology), and I have published a number of monographs and articles. My career began with a collaboration with the prestigious review Quaderni Storici, from which I moved on to translate monographs both for private clients and in collaboration with Italian publishers - most recently with LEG Editore.

Experiences in intercultural mediation, music, theatre and storytelling have expanded my linguistic sensibility towards fiction, folk music and oral culture. For example, a passion for Anglo-American folk music has brought me to translate the lyrics used by Mariano De Simone to tell the story of the USA through song in his books. Working for Ruotalibera Teatro, a Rome-based theatre company, gave me the opportunity to become a bilingual storyteller and interpreter for international theatre workshops. Mine is a hands-on approach to living between my two languages, where everything becomes translation.

I have lived in Scotland since 2008, and for the past 10 years I have been working on and off at Blackwell's, the busiest bookshop in town, one of the best places to come across new authors and to be exposed to some of the most interesting contemporary fiction and non-fiction.

There are books, and there is music in my life. While in my native Rome I studied American folk music, here in Edinburgh I went back to my own roots and front a band that explores the dialects of Italy and their musical traditions, presenting them to enthusiastic Scottish audiences. Yet another effort in cultural as well as linguistic translation!
Services
Non-Fiction
Design History Music Philosophy Political Science & Current Affairs Sociology
Languages
English to Italian Italian to English
Certifications
  • MSc in Social Anthropology with Distinction - University of Edinburgh
  • Laurea in Lettere - Storia 110/110 e lode - Università di Roma La Sapienza
  • Cambridge Celta - Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Work experience

Self-employed

Apr, 2003 — Present

My published translations:

Monographs

- Gregory Hanlon, Vita rurale in terra di Siena nel Seicento. Natura umana e storia, Siena: Pascal Editrice, 2008 (ISBN 978-8876260605)

- Gregory Hanlon, L’Eroe d’Italia. Il Duca Odoardo Farnese, i suoi soldati e i suoi sudditi nella Guerra dei Trent’Anni, Milano: Acies Edizioni, 2017 (ISBN 978-8894276404)

- Gregory Hanlon, Italia 1636: il sepolcro degli eserciti, Gorizia: Leg Edizioni, 2018 (ISBN 978-8861025028)

- Philip Jowett, L’esercito italiano nella Seconda Guerra Mondiale, Gorizia: Leg Edizioni, 2019 (ISBN 978-8861025592)

- James Q. Whitman, Il modello americano di Hitler: gli Stati Uniti, la Germania nazista e le leggi razziali, Gorizia: Leg Edizioni, 2019 (ISBN 978-8861026209)

- Bojan B. Dimitrijević, La crisi di Trieste 1953, Gorizia: Leg Edizioni, 2020, (ISBN 978-8861026445)

- Robert I. Frost, Le Guerre del Nord, 1558-1721, Gorizia: Leg Edizioni, 2022 (ISBN 978-8861028197)

Contributions to monographs

Translation of lyrics in works on the history of the USA through song:

- Mariano De Simone et al., Old-Time, Hard Times. Canzoniere della Country Music, Roma: Dino Audino, 2008 (ISBN 978-8875270650)

- Mariano de Simone, Blues! Afroamericani: da schiavi a emarginati, Roma: Arcana Edizioni, 2012 (ISBN 978-8862312431)

- Mariano de Simone, Da che parte stai? Immigrazione, lavoro, guerre! Viaggio attraverso gli Stati Uniti d’America tra storia e canzoni, Roma: Tempesta Editore 2016 (ISBN 978-8897309840)

Published articles on peer-reviewed journals

On Quaderni Storici (Il Mulino publisher):

- Gregory Hanlon, Infanticidio da parte di coppie sposate in Toscana nella prima età moderna, n. 113, 2/2003

- Alexander Cowan, Mogli non ufficiali e figlie illegittime a Venezia nella prima età moderna, n.114, 3/2003

- Elke-Nicole Kappus, Comunità e identità in Istria, n. 117, 3/2004

- Matthew Vester, Perché l’autonomia istituzionale non significò meno tasse nella Bresse savoiarda (1560-1580), n. 118, 1/2005

- Alistair Thomson, Le storie di vita nello studio dell'emigrazione femminile, n. 120, 3/2005

- Diana Allan, Ricordare e dimenticare il 1948. La politica del ricordo fra i rifugiati palestinesi nel campo di Shatila, n. 120, 3/2005

- Parita Mukta, Il logoramento della memoria: etica, moralità e futuro, n. 120, 3/2005

- Heiko Droste, Spedire una lettera fra Amsterdam e Stoccolma: una questione di fiducia e precauzioni, n. 122, 2/2006

- Geert H. Janssen, Le reti di patronage di Guglielmo Federico di Nassau-Dietz (1613-1664), n. 122, 2/2006

- Yoshie Kojima, Il commercio di oggetti liturgici di lusso tra Europa e Giappone (XVI e XVII secolo), n. 123, 3/2006

- Anne L. Murphy, “Come vanno i titoli"? Informazione e investimenti a Londra alla fine del XVII secolo, n. 124, 1/2007

- Peter Thaler, Una nazione non è fatta solo di nazionalisti, n. 128, 2/2008

- Chris Wickham, A proposito di “Distinguere, separare, condividere. Confini nelle campagne dell’Italia medievale”, a cura di Paola Guglielmotti, n. 129, 3/2008

- Luise Schorn-Schütte, A proposito di “La Réforme en France et en Italie”, a cura di Philip Benedict, Silvana Seidel, Menchie Alain Tallon, n. 130, 1/2009

From IT to EN

- Renata Ago, Using Things as Money: an Example from Late Renaissance Rome, in L. Fontaine (ed.), Alternative Exchanges: Second-Hand Circulations from the Sixteenth Century to The Present, New York (NY): Berghahn Books, 2008 (ISBN 978-1845452452)

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