The content of this book is the opening speech of Valentin Garcia Yebra in the Real Spanish Academy. The first part opens with a study dedicated to the historical importance of translation as one of the most important procedures for the cultural diffusion, the creation and development of new literatures, and the enrichment of the languages used to translate. After emphasizing the nonexistence of a history of the translation, the book draws up the lines on which that history would have to be structured. The first part closes with the Biblical translations and the reception of the semítica culture in the western culture, with a chapter dedicated to translations done in Spain until the reign of Kings Catolicos, that constitutes a first outline of a history of translation in Spain. In the second part, the author studies the consequences of contact between languages, that takes place in the process of the translation. [Source: F. Note]