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It offers the first comparative analysis of its kind, covering three centuries (19th century-present), two languages (Italian and French), and four contagious diseases (plague, smallpox, Ebola and AIDS).

What do the art of translation and epidemiological science have in common, and how can they inform one another? Why is contagion culturally valuable, but physiologically destructive? How can translation theory contribute to an innovative biocultural epistemology of contagion? This essay aims to address these questions by shedding light on the implicit, yet understudied, translation-contagion link.

Yet, if we have come to accept that contagion can be understood as a ‘foundational concept in the study of, of religion and of society’ (Wald, 2008: 2), translation’s epidemiological dimensions have remained relatively unexplored. Our immune system fights against outsiders, just like national cultures can shield themselves from the foreign. Continuous yet imperceptible, ideas of risk, corruption and error have been attached as much to the transfer of texts, beliefs and theories as to the spread of diseases. that of breaking what ‘should be joined or joining should be separate’ (Douglas, 1966: 113). The words ‘contagion’ (‘to touch together') and ‘translation’ (‘to carry across’) share a common course of action and meaning, i.e.