Examen de ingenios. The examination of mens wits. In whicch, by discouering the varietie of natures, is shewed for what profession each one is apt, and how far he shall profit therein. By Iohn Huarte. Translated out of the Spanish tongue by M. Camillo Camili. Englished out of his Italian, by R.C. Esquire. London: Printed by Adam Islip, for Richard Watkins, 1594. Title-page. Classmark: Hunter.d.59.2

Beyond Don Quijote’s early editorial fortunes, Juan Huarte de San Juan’s Examen de ingenios para las ciencias was a phenomenal success. Both the 1575 text and, following the intervention of the Inquisition, a revised version of the treatise -first published in 1594- appeared in numerous editions throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The title-page on display belongs to the first English translation of the Examen, published in London in 1594. Its author, Richard Carew, based himself on the first Italian translation of the treatise by Camillo Camilii, published in 1582. A second English translation would appear a century later, in 1698, with the title The Tryal of Wits and signed by Edward Bellamy. In addition to Italian and English, the Examen was also translated into French, Dutch, Latin and, in the eighteenth century, German.

When looking at the different translations of both Huarte de San Juan’s Examen and Cervantes’ Don Quijote is interesting to observe how the words “ingenios” and “ingenioso” in the titles are rendered, respectively, into other languages. In the case of Cervantes’ novel, the adjective “ingenioso” seems to have proved somehow puzzling for translators, since it is often omitted. In the early modern European context, the language of ingenuity could be as pervasive as elusive, given the polysemous nature of the term.

Huarte de San Juan was one among many early modern European authors who wrote and theorised about ingenuity, including Emanuele Tesauro, René Descartes and Baltasar Gracián.