santidad tipográfica

07:07 May 13, 2019 

In the end I went with “beatification on paper only”, which the client liked. Wouldn't have got therre without all you help, so thanks again.

18:31 May 8, 2019 

Maybe praised as saint or something along this idea might work. I understand though the desire to convey not just the original meaning but the somehow "ornate" original rendering.

17:51 May 8, 2019 

That's one of the candidates, I think. Against it, perhaps, is the fact that "literary" arguably tends to suggest "fictional" in English, or at least pertaining to literature as opposed to real life. Although "literature" doesn't necessarily mean "imaginative literature", by default it tends to be interpreted as such. All the same, I do think it's a possibility.

For that matter, "sainthood on paper" has the possible drawback that "on paper" tends to be contrasted with "in reality", rather like "in theory" versus "in practice". "Sainthood on paper" could sound a bit like a put-down: not so saintly when you look closely.

The idea here, as I understand it, is sainthood in print, sainthood promoted in printed books (or pamphlets or prints or whatever), with connotations of "sainthood by popular demand" in the Italian case. But I'm not whether "sainthood in print" would work.

"Unofficial sainthood" would probably be rejected as not specific enough, like "near-sainthood", though it's closer, I think.

17:08 May 8, 2019 

Victor Infantes, in the article Charles mentions, uses "literaria" several times to refer to this tradition in Spain, so perhaps "literary sainthood" would work?

14:17 May 8, 2019 

I'm neither saintly nor blessed so in the dark in these matters, but I'm grateful for the clarification and your knowledge/research

13:21 May 8, 2019 

(PS. Being beatified doesn't make you a saint, it makes you a "Blessed". The verb for making people saints is "canonise".)

13:20 May 8, 2019 

It's also used in this book from 2002 in a context very similar to yours, in relation to Margarita of Austria, wife of Philip III:

"Margarita vive en loor y compañía de santidad tipográfica antes de su muerte"
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qyd9KmRwDK0C&pg=PA212&dq...

Then again, there's also a more recent article by Víctor Infantes which uses the expression in a completely different sense, referring to St John the Evangelist, patron saint of printers (would you believe):

"La santidad tipográfica en la España del Siglo de Oro. Las honras poéticas a San Juan Evangelista, Patrón de los Impresores"
https://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/2967.pdf

13:16 May 8, 2019 

I must admit it would be my first choice too. I don't really see why it has to sound "17th century-like" (I presume that's your client speaking); "santidad tipográfica" is not a seventeenth-century expression (and was not of course used by Carrillo). It seems to have been coined by Ugo Rozzo in 1997 in relation to "Saint" Simon of Trent (Simonino di Trento), an infant allegedly ritually murdered by Jews in 1475, claimed as a saint by popular demand but never canonised by the Church (though apparently beatified and included in the martyrology, but later removed).

Ugo Rozzo, "Il presunto omicidio rituale di Simonino di Trento e il primo Santo tipografico", Atti dell'Accademia di scienze lettere e arti di Udine, 90 (1997): 185–223.

12:48 May 8, 2019 

I think "on paper" is perfect.