Who were the translators and interpreters of a given historical period? How did they approach the act of translation?

The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies covers a variety of such issues. This work is divided into two parts, and is ordered alphabetically for ease of lookup:

* Part 1 (General) covers the conceptual framework of the discipline. Categories of entries include: central issues (e.g. unit of translation, translatability); summaries of distinct perspectives on translation (e.g. linguistic perspective, interpretive approach); types of translation (e.g. literary translation, dubbing).

* Part II (History and traditions) covers the history of translation in major linguistic/cultural communities. There are entries on a wide range of languages which include Russian, French, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese and Finnish.

Consultant Editors: Susan Bassnett, Peter Fawcett, Marilyn Gaddis-Rose, Michael Hoey, Eugene Nida, Douglas Robinson and Gideon Toury Contributors include: Jean Delisle, Umberto Eco, Daniel Gile, Theo Hermans, Juliane House, Louis Kelly, Jose Lambert, Anthony Pym, Lawrence Venuti and Judith Woodsworth.
Contributors include: Jean Delisle, Umberto Eco, Daniel Gile, Theo Hermans, Juliane House, Louis Kelly, Jose lambert, Anthony Pym, Lawrence Venuti and Judith Woodsworth.