Can we start with the presumption that translation has a history or histories? In order for us to be able to discuss the history of translation, it must be postulated that we can tell one form of translation from another or, at the very least, how the form of translation is transformed through the passage of time; that translation is a certain regime or a set procedure that can be described as distinct or conceptually differentiated from other regimes or procedures. In this presentation, I will discuss an institutionalization of translation, which I have elsewhere called ‘the modern regime of translation,' that is particular to the modern international world. Translation can be performed in a variety of ways, but today, especially in the disciplines of translation studies, this form of translation has generally been accepted as a universal form. Consequently little or no attempt has been made to historicize the form of translation, according to which it is understood as a transfer of a message from one organic systematicity of codes to another, from one national or ethnic language to another. In other words, I want to articulate the specific form of translation to historical dynamic, thanks to which such basic components of the modern world as national language was invented.