Scholar credits Elizabeth I with translation of a Roman history text

Only one person at Queen Elizabeth I’s court is known to have translated any part of Tacitus’s Annals: the monarch herself.

And now a scholar has confirmed that a surviving translation of the Roman historian's work is indeed from the queen and not some previously unknown translator.

John-Mark Philo’s clues were first the watermarks on the paper stock but second — and far more tellingly — was the handwriting, reports the Guardian.

While the majority of the translation is neat, like a professional scribe would have done, there are additions and corrections in a distinct and distinctly sloppy hand that was easily matched to confirmed examples of Elizabeth’s writing.

You can read more about Elizabeth’s linguistic adventures and her choice of literature to translate in the Guardian.

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