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Dispute and Dissociation: John Black’s Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain (1811)

This chapter examines the first of Humboldt’s works to appear in English translation, John Black’s oft-maligned rendering of the Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (1808-11) as the Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain (Longman, 1811). Black resituated and rhetorically manipulated Humboldt’s text by appending a hefty footnote apparatus, which gave the narrative a second, highly audible, paratextual voice in constant dialogue with Humboldt’s own. Black therefore subverted the traditional power differential between author and translator to make the Political Essay critical of the very source text it apparently reproduced. His efforts at establishing his own authority and credibility through self-promotion backfired into intrusive pedantry. However, they did cause Humboldt to consider carefully the need for much closer collaboration with future translators, which offers a neat transition into the next chapter.