The present project takes a transnational perspective on knowledge transfer in the Habsburg monarchy (1848-1918), with a particular focus on translation (Vimr 2025). By digitising historical translation bibliographies and enriching them with Linked Open Data (LOD), we enable, for the first time, the analysis of the structural characteristics of knowledge transfer in a multilingual and multicultural entity such as the Habsburg monarchy, including through data visualisations (Hofeneder 2022). This approach makes it possible to identify asymmetries, hubs, and peripheral zones of knowledge transfer that remain invisible in language-pair or nationally bounded studies.

Rather than focusing on a single language or language pair, we will consider all translations published within the territory of the Habsburg monarchy, in line with a transnational understanding (Judson 2016; Surman 2018). This prevents a nation from being equated with particular languages and, consequently, with fixed territories.

The aggregation of over 100,000 records covering fiction and non-fiction texts reveals structural properties and patterns of knowledge transfer that transcend national frameworks. This method provides a spatial understanding of translation as a dynamic process, revealing movement patterns and relationships that would otherwise be difficult to detect. This graph-based approach significantly enhances our ability to study translation as an interconnected spatial phenomenon.