This work presents some of the most important translation practices in Western history. The practices are presented chronologically with respect to traditional historical periods: Classical Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment. In addition to the translation practices of these periods, all of them European, this thesis examines translation practices employed in Brazil from the arrival of the Portuguese until the 1960s. The study of these practices from a historical perspective provides elements for understanding that the different ways of translating are related to the functions of translation in each place and time period, and that these functions are subject to the prevailing power relations in the diverse socio- cultural contexts, according to a range of political and economic interests and ideologies.