  We discuss a relativistic theory of the atomic nuclei in the framework of the
hamiltonian formalism and of the mesonic model of the nucleus. Attention is
paid to the translational invariance of the theory. Our approach is centered on
the concept of spectral amplitude, a function in the Dirac spinor space. We
derive a Lorentz covariant equation for the latter, which requires as an input
the baryon self-energy. For this we either postulate the most general
Lorentz-Poincar\'e invariant expression or perform a calculation via a
Bethe-Salpeter equation starting from a nucleon-nucleus interaction. We discuss
the features of the nuclear spectrum obtained in the first instance. Finally
the general constraints the self-energy should satisfy because of analyticity
and Poincar\'e covariance are discussed.
