With the publication of Mulder’s treaty The art of translatio’ in 1824, translational discourse seems to have become sufficiently emancipated. Growing nationalism may have put translation onto the defensive on the one hand, but has also contributed to translation manifesting itself as an activity entirely different from creating original work, and therefore in need of its own reflections. This reflection seems to concentrate on the relation between source and target text, and on how one should translate. From then on, translational discourse seems to have gained independence until it has recently transformed into translation studies. This essay stresses changes, but does not neglect the fact that traditional approaches to translation persisted until late in the nineteenth century.