Il contratto — The Contract

Reading an Italian contract

Italian legal and contractual language — part of what year 2 called burocratese — has a vocabulary of its own that looks familiar and isn't. Risolvere un contratto does not mean resolving a dispute but terminating the agreement; le parti are the parties to it; facoltà is a right or option, not a faculty; corrispondere un compenso is simply to pay a fee. Clauses are typically written in the future tense and the third person (il Traduttore si impegna, l'Editore potrà), and conditions come in formal connectors — qualora, salvo, previo, fermo restando — that rarely appear in speech. A literary translation contract, in Italy as elsewhere, usually covers the deadline, the fee and when it is paid (often in installments: on signature, on delivery, on approval), the publisher's right to edit, and the translator's moral right to be named. In Italy the translator's name normally appears on the frontespizio, the title page, and is protected as part of the translator's rights over the translation. Many translators' associations publish model contracts and advise reading every clause, as Nadia does, before signing. Nadia's advice — get any change agreed per iscritto — is good practice in any Italian professional relationship. Spoken promises are sincere but forgettable; an email is the minimum that will hold if there is ever a disagreement.