Translatio studii - transfer of learning - is a historiographical concept, originating in the Middle Ages, in which history is viewed as a linear succession of transfers of knowledge or learning from one geographical place and time to another.

Chrétien de Troyes - 12th century French poet - in his poem "Cligès", explains that Greece was first the seat of all knowledge, then it came to Rome, and now "it has come to France, where, by the grace of God, it shall remain forever more".

In the Renaissance and later, historians saw the metaphorical light of learning as moving much as the light of the sun did: westward. According to this notion, the first center of learning was Eden, followed by Babylon, and Jerusalem. From there, the light of learning moved westward to Athens, and then west to Rome. After Rome, learning moved west to Paris. From there, enlightenment purportedly moved west to London. The metaphor of translatio studii went out of fashion in the 18th century, but such English Renaissance authors as George Herbert were already predicting that learning would move next to America.

A pessimistic corollary metaphor is the "translatio stultitiae". As learning moves west, as the earth turns and light falls ever westward, so night follows and claims the places learning has departed from.

Where's the light of knowledge moving to?