Interpreting, the oldest profession in the world?
Maybe, but it has never been proven! It is true, though, that ever since mankind has evolved into separate groupings, “intermediaries” with knowledge of languages and customs of one or more other groups have been pivotal in enabling communication. Without going back to prehistoric times, this is what Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, an agent of a Florentine bankers’ family wrote around 1340 in a guide for merchants traveling to Asia: “And at Tana you should furnish yourself with a dragoman (interpreter). And you must not try to save money in the matter of dragomen by taking a bad one instead of a good one. For the additional wages of the good one will not cost you so much as you will save by having him.” (Quoted from “The Discoverers” by Daniel Boorstin, New York: Random House, 1983). Francesco certainly knew it all!
