<i>Translatio imperii et studii</i> : Translating Orosius’s <i>Histories</i> and the making of Old English

Abstract This article looks at the geographical first chapter of the Old English Orosius to explore theorisations of written Old English, a small local language, as an imperial language. That chapter is considered in light of King Alfred’s vernacular educational programme as articulated in The Preface to the Pastoral Care and in the context of the multilingual nature of England in the late ninth and early tenth centuries.