The “impossible” Mistakes of Traditionally Published Books.

Of the problem of translation and accuracy in books “traditionally published.”

I just had a disagreement with a sympathetic reader (a French) who pointed out to me a gross error in a book known to all of us: “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco.

She — obviously — was reading the French translation and sold by a well-known publishing house, one of the Big 5.

In the French edition, towards p. 51-52, Adso describes the wonders of the herbarium and cites a number of plants and flowers, used by the monks for ornamental and medicinal purposes, and ends the list with “les baumes du Perou.”

“Horreur,” exclaimed my friend. “What a blunder by Umberto Eco.”

Uhmm, indeed the error is huge, Peru did not exist nor the American continent was even known at the times in which the action takes place in the novel.

My immediate response has been, “whatever, no way Umberto Eco made such an error. The error is with the translator.”

“No, impossible, with a publishing house as the , no one could make these mistakes among those professionals.”

And instead…

Umberto Eco, in the Italian version, speaks of the “opobalsami”, well known already in the ancient Greece and to doctors in the Roman Empire, also under the collective name of balms of Galaad, ancient city Judea. Used to cure cuts and wounds, and its infusion used against stomach ache.

Eco is redeemed, but not the infallibility of books produced traditionally. Perhaps, if Eco had self-published his “Name” in French, he would have immediately discovered the idiocy of the translator and saved the readers a moment of historical and literary disgust.

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