ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the general nature of translation history, particularly its parts, its background, and a few reasons for its existence. James S Holmes seminal lecture 'The Name and Nature of Translation Studies' set out to orient the scholarly study of translation. It put forward a conceptual scheme that identified and interrelated many of the things that can be done in translation studies, envisaging an entire future discipline and effectively stimulating work aimed at establishing that discipline. Lawrence Humphrey's map breaks down the categories horizontally, from left to right, whereas the Holmes map is vertical, going from top to bottom, like company organization charts. Systems theory has enabled fragmentary philological studies to be placed in a wider picture, unifying translation history without denying the discipline's own historical depth. A good example of this synthesizing vision is Theo Hermans explanatory narrative of Renaissance translation, which presents little new material but makes good sense of a lot of old research.
