This interdisciplinary study sets out to theorize and historicize plagiarism. The first part launches a vigorous debate about the ethical, philosophical, artistic, and legal implications of plagiarism. Individual essays in part two provide historical case studies. Variously centered on translations of the Bible, historiography, drama, poetry, dance treatises, sermons, and colonial grammars, the essays show how a nexus of concepts developed between the Renaissance and the early 19th century—plagiarism, imitation, forgery, copyright, and intellectual property—and how they have been defined and contested.

Pauline Kewes is at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.