Translation played a crucial role in the emergence of vernacular literary culture in the Middle Ages. This book considers the rise of translation as part of a broader history of critical discourses from classical Rome to the late Middle Ages, and as such adds to our understanding of the development of European culture. Topics discussed include Roman theories of translation: the fusion of grammar and rhetoric; the place of translation and the value of hermeneutics; the rhetorical character of academic commentary; translation and interlingual commentary: translation and intralingual reception, rhetorical invention as hermeneutical performance and, in a final instance, translation as rhetorical invention.