Ramsay [Ramsey], Claudia Hamilton (1825-1902)

Title

Ramsay , Claudia Hamilton

Author

Ramsay [Ramsey], Claudia Hamilton (1825-1902)

Date

1825-1902

Place of origin

Glasgow

Roma

Country of origin

Scotland, United Kingdom

Language

English

Italian

Profession

Translator

Travel writer

Biographical details

Claudia Hamilton Ramsay was born in Glasgow on 18th May 1825, daughter of Robert Ramsay and Joanna Hamilton.

According to the reviewer of the Glasgow Herald, she was 'a niece of Alex Garden, formerly Lord Provost of Glasgow and her mother [Joanna Hamilton] was a niece of Christopher North's mother. We see in Mrs. Ramsay a remarkable case of distinguished talent descending in the female line to the third generation. In the first generation we have the Sims, of whom Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Hamilton were two. Miss Simm was one of the most brilliant conversationalist in Glasgow. In the second generation we find Lady M'Neill, the sister of Christopher North, and the writer of some capital sketches of Persian life and manners, which appeared in Blackwood. In the third generation, we find Mrs. Gordon, authoress of the "Life of Christoper North", and Mrs. Ramsay, the talented translator of Dante'

Glasgow Herald - Saturday 13 December 1862, British Newspaper Archive

She lived in Italy for many years, and in the introduction to her translation, she refers to having worked 'in the very scenes where he [Dante] lived and wrote: beneath the shadow of the Tuscan hills, on the shores of the Bay of Naples, among the ruins of old Rome' (pp. vi).

Claudia Hamilton Ramsay Passport

She was in Rome in the spring of 1871, where she met with Victorian writer and art historian, Vernon Lee. In her letters, Lee recounted their meetings and her opinion on Ramsay's translation of Dante.

Rome, April 17 1871

Yesterday and today very stormy scirocco – day before yesterday we paid Mrs Fol[i]ambe a visit & found, met, Mrs Ramsay translator of Dante & her sister. They're stopping at the villa.
******
To Mrs Henrietta Jenkin
Rome, June 2, 1871

The Abate Ciccolini tells us that Mrs. Ramsay, the translator of Dante into English terzini and who we know, is an Arcadian, but he cannot remember her pastoral name, nor what is still more remarkable, his own, for which he has to look in a catalogue . The ignorance of this man is inexplicable ; he has been C ustode for many years, yet cannot even recognise the portrait of Metastasio. (p. 25)
******
To Mrs Henrietta Jenkin
Oct 14, 1874
Bagni di Lucca, Albergo Padiglione

No species of occupation seems to me more disgusting than the making of a translation, however good. I don 't know whether the business be a lucrative one, but it does not appear a very distinguished sort of work.
A friend of ours at Rome, Mrs. Ramsay,
worked for seven years in turning Dante into English terzini : her translation is far the best I know:better that is than Cary, Wright, or Longfellow, but it seems to have gained her absolutely no reputation whatever.
***********
To Linda Villari (author and translator)
July 1 1878

The Ramsays are in Paris till about the 10th when they to in your direction (Geneva), I believe to Chateau-D'oex in the Simmenthal, which everyone says is cool and pleasant. Perhaps you may meet them.

Lee, Vernon, and Amanda Gagel. Selected Letters of Vernon Lee, 1856-1935. Volume 1. 2016.

In Florence, she was a recurrent subscriber of the Gabinetto Vieusseux, the international circulating library. According to their membership records, she purchased a one-month subscription in March 1880 (09/03/1880) when she was living at Hotel Milano in via Cerretani, in November 1886 (04/11/1886), staying at Pension Giotti and in November of the following year (15/11/1887) when she was residing at Pension Piccioli in Via Tornabuoni 1.

Membership record, March 1880

Membership record, Nov. 1886 (possibly her signature)

Membership record, Nov. 1887

She died in Rome on 30th July 1902 and was buried with her sister in the Protestant Cemetery.

IN LOVING MEMORY OF
HENRIETTA GARDEN
BORN 19TH SEPTEMBER 1819
DIED 4TH MAY 1901
THERE SHALL BE NO MORE DEATH, NEITHER SORROW,
NOR CRYING. NEITHER SHALL THERE BE ANY MORE PAIN.
REV 21.4

Secondary inscription.

AND OF HER SISTER
CLAUDIA HAMILTON RAMSEY
BORN 15TH JANUARY 1825
DIED 30TH JULY 1902

Cimitero Acattolico di Roma

Selected publications

(1862-63). Dante's Divina commedia translated into English, in the metre and triple rhyme of the original, with notes, by Mrs. Ramsay. 3 vols. London. Tinsley Brothers

Dante's Divina Commedia Translated Into English, in the Metre and Triple Rhyme of the Original with Notes

(1874). A summer in Spain. London. Tinsley Brothers

Relation

Anglophone women writers