ABSTRACT
An example of stonemasons in early modern Italy shows how the Hughes framework can help bridge the gap between sources written by the elite and the lives of working people in the past. Historians can identify practi- tioners (and their colleagues), coworkers, and clients for a given occupation; specify technique, object of technique, workshop, hierarchy within the occupation, and paths into and out of the occupation; and see more about them in historical sources through the lenses of the key Hughes concepts of dirty work, code and policy, license and mandate, guilty knowledge and symbols of distinction, and mistakes at work. Shared vocabulary will facilitate comparative work in the history of occupations.
