John Stevens (1662 – 1726) was an accomplished translator of Latin and French, and is perhaps most notable as one of the first scholars to take Spanish language works into English.
Born in London to a French mother and schooled in France, John Stevens made an early start as a linguist. He also made his mark as a fighting man, serving in the army of King James II during the Jacobite wars in Ireland. After laying down his weapons, John Stevens took up his pen and Portuguese Asia, his first published translation, appeared in 1695.
Most of the work of John Stevens work fell into three categories; travel literature, Spanish literature and antiquarian works. An interest in monasteries made Stevens an enthusiastic translator of Latin antiquarian texts by Bede and Dugdale and similar French works by Louis Alémand. The Spanish classics he brought to English-speakers included Don Quixote (1700).
With this variety of interests and achievements, John Stevens channelled a wide range of words into the English language. The vocabulary he introduced included albino, all-inclusive, Apache, pearl fishing and pin-prick.
The greatest contribution John Stevens made to to cultural links may well have been the publication of an English-Spanish dictionary. The first edition in 1705 had 103 pages and 20,000 entries. Within a year it was re-issued with 415 pages and some 40,000 entries. Spain’s golden age of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries was a cultural treasure trove, and it’s our pleasure to pay tribute to the man who did as much as anyone to bring its jewels to an English speaking population.
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