The Lord's Prayer is probably the most translated text in the world, memorized for centuries in churches, schools, and catechisms. Yet behind this familiarity lies a little-known episode in the history of scholarship: Beginning in the 16th century, the prayer became the standard text for cataloging, counting, and comparing the world's languages. What began around 1600 with about fifty versions soon grew into extensive compilations containing hundreds of specimens.
Lord in Translation recounts this forgotten chapter in the global history of languages and the intellectual worlds that underpinned it. Drawing on rare manuscripts, little-studied printed books, and vivid case studies, it shows how a single short text helped early modern scholars comprehend linguistic diversity and kinship in theoretical terms, while at the same time provoking fierce debates over how languages could and should be compared. From creative hoaxes and missionary field reports to radical calls for new methods, Lord in Translation traces how the rise and eventual decline of these polyglot collections prepared the ground for modern linguistics.