Description

In 1578, John Florio – the Anglo-Italian writer, teacher, translator, and lexicographer – wrote that English was ‘a language that wyl do you good in England, but passe Dover, it is woorth nothing’. Beyond their borders, early modern English-speakers had to be language-learners. This paper explores the study of vernacular languages in early modern England, taking in the texts used by learners, the teachers and authors at the heart of England’s booming extracurricular economy, and students’ experiences of language-learning at home and abroad. It argues for the importance of thinking multilingually about early modern English history, and makes the case for a historicised understanding of linguistic competences in the early modern period.

John Gallagher is a Research Fellow in History at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. He recently completed a doctorate at Cambridge and is currently reworking his dissertation for publication as a book, with the working title Learning Languages in Early Modern England. He works on topics including the history of language-learning and communication across linguistic boundaries; histories of education, travel, cultural encounter, and migration; histories of print and the book; and orality and literacy in the past. An article titled ‘The Italian London of John North: cultural contact and linguistic encounter in early modern England’ is forthcoming in Renaissance Quarterly.