English
French 
Spanish -
... to English.
As English is fast becoming a global lingua franca, we owe it to have as many examples of other literatures as possible. Too often books published in English mention — only too discreetly— that the author wrote the book in another language. One should therefore not be surprised if readers in English should assume that Milan Kundera and Albert Camus wrote in English...
calador.org respecting its humanist vocation will make sure the readers of the English translations of the Mediterranean historical novels know thoughts evolved in those places and times. 
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About Translators …
… as a rule tend to choose a book to translate because they like the subject, author, or maybe both. In any case, he cannot be expected to also be an historian; he might then be curious about something or other, we translate with the object of bringing History to readers. The process includes annotations, for these to remain simple, clear and instructive we will have to count on some academic assistance and support which we are about to start requesting. 
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Available now ...
Miguel Angel Vidal's Catalan historical novel El jardi de les Hesperides translated as The Garden of the Golden Apples is translated... Some discrepancies between a newer version have appeared, they are being looked at.
About calador.org
calador.org came to be in April 2000. The idea was to centralize the efforts of approximately 50 hotels and another 50 or so businesses in taking position on the Internet. The mood was not yet to ‘sharing’, and so I, Pierre Vandelac, remained with the dream and the site.
In 2007, I came across Esther Allen’s TranslationReport which convinced me to translate to English. As I started translating for, say an Asian teenager, it suddenly dawned on me that it could very well be he would not know where Sicily lies, nor would know who Zeus was; again, the same thing would happen with words I would use in the English translation for various reasons such as a ‘lateen sail’ which is less likely to be known on shores outside the Mediterranean.
Which is why my translations are annotated with notes on Places, Characters and on the English vocabulary used. The notes are four of five lines long with a link to more information, very often using www.Wikipedia.org. The notes on the vocabulary used are generally taken from the Oxford English Dictionary OED (CD Rom Ver. 4.0.0.3).
The notes are useful to all, teenagers who are still studying, and retirees who, having left their studies long ago, have forgotten who was Zeus’ mortal lover, he abducted while disguised as a tame white bull.
About the translations …
… as a rule, translators tend to choose a book to translate because they like the subject, the author, or both. In any case, they cannot be expected to also be historians and philologists in the original language; they might then be curious about something or other, we translate with the object of bringing History and geography and some humanism to readers. The calador.org annotated Mediterranean historical novels need input by historians, geographers and philologists who can correct or steer the translator in his annotations. For these to remain simple, clear and instructive we will have to rely on some academic assistance and institutional support which we are always ready to welcome.
calador.org Publishing will be contacting history and philology departments in various universities to request input in the period in which the translators make notes.
About the tools used
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
As stated in the preface of this book, because English is becoming the lingua franca the translator needed a dictionary that still had words used in the XVth century. A simple word such as “routinary” is neither in Webster’s 3rd New International Dictionary nor is it in other dictionaries I have or in the Government of Canada’s linguistic and data bank which has 3.9 millions terms… As stated in the Preface of the OED:
The aim of this Dictionary is to present in alphabetical series the words that have formed the English vocabulary from the time of the earliest records down to the present day, with all the relevant facts concerning their form, sense-history, pronunciation, and etymology. It embraces not only the standard language of literature and conversation, whether current at the moment, or obsolete, or archaic, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectal usage and slang.
Wikipedia
From the Wikipedia site … The Wikipedia community has developed many policies and guidelines to improve the encyclopedia. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference web sites, attracting nearly 68 million visitors monthly as of January 2010. There are more than 91,000 active contributors working on more than 15,000,000 articles in more than 270 languages.
This is the reason for which calador.org Publishing likes Wikipedia: it is often updated and, should a reader have difficulty understanding some text, he may choose to select the article in his own language.
