The Gerardo de Cremona International Translation Award for the Promotion of Translation in the Mediterranean, promoted by the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) through the Toledo School of Translators, was granted to the translators Enrique Montero Cartelle and Hassan Boutakka in its third edition, to the King Fahd School of Translation in Tangier, and to the Gredos Publishing House. The jury's deliberation is announced coinciding with the International Translation Day, which commemorates the 30th of September in honor of Jerónimo de Estridón, translator of the Bible and the patron saint of translators.
The award acknowledges the significant contribution of a person and/or institution of a country on the north shore, and a country on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, in the field of translation. This award is promoted by the Toledo School of Translators, with the support of the King Abdul-Aziz Foundation for Islamic Studies and Humanities (Morocco), the MED 21 Programme, and the Town Hall of Cremona (Italy). Honorific in nature, it consists of a sculpture and a diploma. In this third edition, the prize-giving ceremony will take place on October 6th, in Casablanca, organized by the King Abdul-Aziz Foundation for Islamic Studies and Humanities.
The jury was composed of the rector of the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Miguel Angel Collado; the director of the Toledo School of Translators, Teresa Santamaría Hernández; the director of the King Abdul-Aziz Foundation for Islamic Studies and Humanities, M. Sghir Janjar; the president and founder of the "MED 21 Programme–Network Awards for promotion of Excellence and Cooperation in the Mediterranean", Nadir Mohamed Aziza; the Mayor of Cremona, Gianluca Galimberti, and the representative of ACE Translators Teresa Lanero.
The jury's decision acknowledges and rewards the work of Enrique Montero Cartelle, Professor of Latin Philology at the University of Valladolid, editor, and translator of Latin texts, and a specialist in medieval medical writings from Arab sources, particularly those of Constantine the African. Concerning the category "Translators of the South Shore", the jury awards the work of Hassan Boutakka, a Moroccan scholar, professor, and translator, specialized in short stories, who has translated into Arabic works by Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Benedetti, Juan Rulfo, and Augusto Monterroso, among others.
In the category of institutions, the III Gerardo de Cremona Award acknowledges the trajectory of the King Fahd School of Translation in Tangier, a public institution founded in 1983, which has been training translators for more than 30 years in Morocco and promoting translation research through its magazine Trujamán. The Gredos Publishing House also deserved this distinction, especially for its Classical Library and its work on the diffusion of Greek and Latin literature through the translation of outstanding classical philologists published for forty years.
Office of Communications, UCLM. Toledo, September 29, 2017