Merchants, scholars and languages: The circulation of linguistic knowledge in the context of the Dutch East India Company (VOC)

This paper offers an initial exploration of the impact of the Dutch United East India Company (VOC) on the circulation of linguistic knowledge. After presenting some forgotten Dutch linguistic fieldworkers who operated overseas, and after examining the fate of their works in Europe, we will examine in a second part the degree to which Europe-based scholars actively solicited VOC-actors to pass on information about the world’s languages