After a brief description of the state of the art, this paper presents new methods of process-oriented translation training. The different instruments used in class, such as questionnaires and other tools, the learning outcome of these methods and the improvement of proficiency achieved by these means, constitute the core of the paper. The third and final part deals with the preliminary results of an interdisciplinary research project with the Department of Neurology of the University Hospital of Geneva, and the prospects for applying this type of research to translation training.

1. Semiotic innovation in the art of Leonardo da Vinci In his “Trattato della pittura ” Leonardo states that the painter has as his primary aim the representation of two things: man and his mind (“l’uomo e la mente”; Pedretti, 1995: § 180). The nature of man becomes visible and, therefore, accessible to the eye in the different “accidents ” and movements and in the proportions of his body parts (cf. Pedretti, 1995: Terza Parte). In order to represent man and his mind the artist must first create a pictorial space, the stage for the topic of the painting. Second he must consider light and shadow in human bodies, the gestures of the hands, the postures of the head and facial expression before he distributes the topics of the painting on the surface. Finally landscape, sky, objects, animals, persons accompanying the topic of the painting (mostly individuals or groups of individuals) must be arranged in space, relative to light and shadow. Leonardo’s art goes beyond mimesis of nature; it divulges the internal meaning of space, of light and shadows to the viewer. The beauty of a scene is the recovered meaning in the mind of the viewer. With the fore-grounding of movement and accident Leonardo requires interpretative activity of the viewer, who, based on his experience, must extrapolate movement and action from an