In this first and therefore programmatic contribution, Lieven D’hulst sheds light on a number of historiographic and problematic aspects of the history of thinking about translation. He orders his ideas around three propositions: 1. Translation studies only rarely distinguishes between the historical description of translations and of translation reflections, such as theory or critique; 2. If the history of translation and translation reflection should be attributed a scientific character, justifying the change of name into historiography, then a balanced structure of common and specific characteristics should be aspired; 3. The historiography of translation studies is subject to a meta-historiographic approach, describing the different perspectives and at the same affirming its autonomy vis-à-vis Translation Studies