Project description
Opportunities for language professionals in Early Modern Europe
Between 1550 and 1650, North-Western Europe experienced growth in the print industry and language education, likely creating job opportunities for those skilled in languages. However, because language professionals have not been studied as a distinct group in the early modern workforce, the full extent of opportunities for them remains unclear. The ERC-funded LangPro project aims to explore the language sector in early modern North-West Europe, focusing on the professional and social opportunities it provided for men and women. It will examine financial income, guild support, social status, and job prospects for women. Through a new framework and database, the project will enhance understanding of labour history and the significance of language in personal advancement during this period.
Objective
Historians have shown that the period from 1550 to 1650 was marked by a rapid expanse of the print industry, language education, and administrative bureaucracy, especially in North-West Europe. This implies that there must have been a swift increase in occupational opportunities for men and women who possessed language skills such as reading, writing, and text editing in one or more languages. However, since language professionals have never been studied as a separate category in the early modern workforce, the opportunities that existed for linguistically skilled individuals remain a big unknown.
LangPro adds a fundamental missing perspective to our understanding of the early modern labour market by introducing the new notion of the language sector: that part of early modern economies which relied primarily on language skills. The project considers language proficiency as a hard skill with real-world professional value.
LangPro’s central research question is: What professional, financial, and social opportunities did the early modern language sector offer to men and women in early modern North-West Europe (1550-1650)? Five work packages will disclose the potential for personal advancement that the language industry offered: financial income; support through a guild system; enhanced social status; and job opportunities, specifically for women. Laying the groundwork for a new research domain on the history of the language sector, we will develop a conceptual framework and prosopographical database that make it possible to gain insight into the characteristics of professionals in the past whose core business was language and the nature of the sector that employed them.
LangPro will evoke important shifts in the history of early modern labour, women’s history, and the history of language practices. It is the forerunner of a new research line on a long underestimated sector that provided precious opportunities to individuals from all walks of life.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences databases
- humanities history and archaeology history
- social sciences political sciences public administration bureaucracy
- social sciences economics and business business and management employment
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
2311 EZ Leiden
Netherlands
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