Tomedes Helps LVPEI's Prof. Ali Unlock 300 Years of Ophthalmology Literature

The history of medical science was written in Latin, Old French, French, Italian, German, and Swedish. For years, Tomedes made sure none of it stayed unread.
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300+
Years of literature spanned
6
Source languages handled
19+
Historical authors recovered into English
2+
Years of continuous engagement
About L V Prasad Eye Institute

One of the world's foremost eye health institutions

The L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) is one of the world's foremost eye health institutions. It is a WHO Collaborating Centre for the Prevention of Blindness, headquartered in Hyderabad, India, with more than 316 centres across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, and Karnataka. Founded on the principle that quality eye care should be accessible to everyone regardless of their ability to pay, LVPEI operates across ten functional arms: clinical services, education, research, vision rehabilitation, community eye care, eye banking, advocacy, capacity building, product development, and technology.

At the heart of LVPEI's research mission sits the Govindram Seksaria Institute of Dacryology (the only dedicated institute of its kind in the world), led by Prof. Dr. Mohammad Javed Ali, MD, Ph.D, FRCS. Prof. Ali is the most cited author in lacrimal drainage research globally, a recipient of the Senior Alexander von Humboldt Award and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (India's highest scientific honour), Editor-in-Chief of Seminars in Ophthalmology, and holds named professorships at the National University Health System Singapore, Friedrich-Alexander University Nuremberg, and the University of Shanghai.

In 2023, Prof. Ali embarked on an ambitious project: a comprehensive historical study of the lacrimal drainage sciences, tracing the contributions of the field's founding figures across more than three centuries of medical literature. The scholarship existed. The documents existed. But most of them were written in languages that modern researchers could not read.

The Challenge

Three challenges unlike any standard academic translation engagement

Medical history is recorded in the language of the era in which it was written. For the history of dacryology, the science of the lacrimal drainage system that governs tear production and drainage in the human eye, that means a literature spanning Old Latin surgical descriptions from the 17th and 18th centuries, Old French anatomical treatises, modern French clinical papers, Italian surgical records, German scientific monographs, and Swedish medical texts. None of it was available in English. None of it could contribute to the published historical record until it was.

01

Dead and archaic languages with no living professional market

Old Latin and Old French are not languages professional agencies encounter day to day. The pool of translators fluent in classical or ecclesiastical Latin combined with knowledge of historical ophthalmological terminology is extraordinarily narrow. Old French diverges sharply from modern French in grammar, syntax, and pre-modern medical vocabulary. Sourcing the right linguist was a scholarly exercise, not a procurement one.

02

Preserving the scientific voice of historical authors

The goal was not simply to make the content available in English, but to produce translations that preserved each author's reasoning, clinical observations, and anatomical descriptions in a form that could be cited in peer-reviewed publications. A translation that smoothed over an 18th-century Latin surgical description would have falsified the historical record it was meant to illuminate. Accuracy to what the authors actually wrote was the standard, not modernized approximation.

03

A continuous, multi-year, growing body of source material

This was not a finite package. Over more than two years, Prof. Ali submitted documents progressively as new primary sources were identified: Pappenheim, Lauth, Aubaret, Desmarres, Pallucci, Janin, Wecker, Demours, Arlt, Velpeau, and others. Each author brought a distinct century, country, and register of medical Latin, French, Italian, or German. Maintaining a consistent approach across work that expanded over years demanded an engagement structure that could grow without losing coherence.

Why Tomedes

A translation partner for a body of published scholarship

Prof. Ali selected Tomedes for its ability to source specialist linguists across a combination of source languages that no single translator or small team could cover, and to maintain the quality and contextual fidelity of the translations across a multi-year research program. The engagement required Tomedes to treat each document not as an isolated job but as a contribution to published scholarship, structuring the translation process around the recovery of the intellectual history of dacryology rather than around standard throughput metrics.

The Solution

Sourcing, fidelity, and continuity built around the research

1

Linguist sourcing by century, language variant, and specialization

Each document was assessed individually before a translator was assigned, not just for source language but for the specific variant and period represented in the text. An Old Latin surgical treatise from the 1750s required a different linguist profile than an 1880s German scientific monograph or a 1910 French clinical paper. For each document, Tomedes identified translators with the relevant historical language competence and, where possible, a background in historical medical or anatomical literature. The result was a roster of specialists assembled around this project, not a general team applied uniformly.

2

Contextual fidelity as the governing translation standard

Every document was built around a single governing standard: contextual fidelity. Where a historical author used a term or construction that reflected the medical understanding of their era, the translation preserved that specificity rather than substituting a contemporary equivalent. Where a Latin author used a term for a lacrimal structure reflecting 18th-century anatomical nomenclature, the translation rendered it as the author used it, with contextual annotation where necessary. This produced translations usable as historical sources, not just accessible summaries of historical content.

3

Document-by-document intake with a standing context framework

As new documents arrived, each was processed within a standing context framework that maintained continuity across the full body of work. The historical period, the language variant, the author's known anatomical framework, and terminology decisions made in earlier documents were all carried forward into each new assignment. The 15th document in the series benefited from the accumulated context of the 14 that preceded it, rather than being treated as a fresh start with no memory of the project's scope and scholarly standards.

4

Feedback integration as a quality development process

Over two years of active collaboration, Prof. Ali provided detailed feedback on specific choices: terminology preferences, rendering decisions for ambiguous historical terms, and register adjustments that better matched the scholarly tone of particular authors. Each piece of feedback was incorporated not just into the document that prompted it but into the standing reference framework. Translation quality developed progressively across the engagement, a consequence of treating the relationship as a genuine research collaboration rather than a series of independent transactions.

5

Supporting the publication pipeline

The translations were produced with publication in mind from the outset. Prof. Ali's Lacrimal History series, published in Seminars in Ophthalmology, relies directly on the accurate rendering of primary source material in English. Each translation was delivered in a format and to a standard that could move directly into the editorial process, with source text and English translation structured to support the citation and quotation requirements of peer-reviewed publication. The translations did not require a secondary editing pass before they could be used in submitted manuscripts.

The Result

A field's founding figures, accessible in English for the first time

Over more than two years, the translated primary sources contributed directly to Prof. Ali's published Lacrimal History series, a body of work that has made the contributions of dacryology's founding figures accessible to the global ophthalmological research community for the first time in English. Authors whose surgical insights and anatomical observations had been locked inside texts modern researchers could not read are now part of the citable, accessible record of the field.

19+
Historical authors recovered into English
6
Source languages handled to a citation-grade standard
0
Secondary editing passes required before manuscript use

To illustrate the precision the project required, consider the challenge of rendering a passage from a French medical text published in 1908, written in the formal clinical register of early 20th-century French ophthalmology, with anatomical terminology that reflects pre-modern understanding of lacrimal structures. The translated English had to be readable by a contemporary researcher, historically accurate to what the author actually described, and precise enough to support citation in a peer-reviewed journal.

That combination of demands, readability, historical accuracy, and citation-grade precision, is what every document in this project required, sustained across a two-year program with no relaxation of standard. The work is now published. The history of dacryology is more complete because of it.

In 2023, I embarked upon an ambitious project dealing with the history of the lacrimal drainage sciences. The history was recorded in several languages, such as Old Latin, Old French, modern French, Italian, and Swedish. For more than two years since then, I have greatly benefited from Tomedes' expertise in providing me with authentic translations while preserving contextual fidelity. Much of this scientific work is now published. I unhesitatingly recommend Tomedes for scientific translations.

MA
Prof. Dr. Mohammad Javed Ali, MD, Ph.D, FRCSDistinguished Alumni Chair of Ophthalmology, LVPEI · Editor-in-Chief, Seminars in Ophthalmology
Project Snapshot

Key details

Document type
Historical medical and scientific texts: surgical treatises, anatomical papers, clinical monographs, and historical scientific publications
Source languages
Old Latin, Old French, French, Italian, German, Swedish
Target language
English (UK)
Industry
Academic / Medical Research / Ophthalmology
Service type
Historical and scientific document translation with a contextual fidelity standard
Scope
Multi-document, multi-year research program across 19+ historical authors
Certification
ISO 17100:2015

Working with historical documents in Latin, Old French, or other classical languages?

If you are a researcher, academic institution, or medical historian working with historical documents in Latin, Old French, Italian, German, or other classical or historical languages, Tomedes provides academic translation services for published research across all source languages. Contact us today for a free consultation.

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