The crafts of Florence rapidly acquired legal status, and increased in number in the thirteenth century. Those which were expected to pay a tax at the beginning of the fourteenth century are given below. The list shows a wide variety of industries organized as crafts of greater or less importance.
These are the crafts which are compelled to pay the said tax, or which were ordered to pay it to the commune of Florence:
- 1. Calimala.
- 2. Combmakers.
- 3. Arte della Lana. [wool]
- 4. Rough carpenters and manufacturers of saddles for asses and mules.
- 5. St. Mary's Gate [silk].
- 6. Spicers.
- 7. Physicians.
- 8. Manufacturers of pack-saddles.
- 9. Furriers.
- 10. Retail winemerchants, as tax, 2 denarii per pound received from the sale of wine.
- 11. Butchers.
- 12. Cobblers.
- 13. Smiths.
- 14. Linen and yarn merchants.
- 15. Dealers in used and new locks.
- 16. Dealers in bedfeathers and matress-makers.
- 17. Stonemasons and woodcutters.
- 18. Old clothes and linen dealers.
- 19. Oil, cheese, and grain merchants; chaff and fodder makers.
- 20. Armor smiths and sword smiths.
- 21. Tanners, wholesale and retail.
- 22. Helmet smiths and brass workers.
- 23. Bakers (for bakeovens).
- 24. Goldsmiths and flaskmakers.
- 25. Purse makers.
- 26. Innkeepers.
- 27. Chest and trunk makers.
- 28. Harness and beltmakers.
- 29. Coopers, barrel makers, coffin makers, kneading-trough makers.
- 30. Manufacturers of iron and wooden shields.
- 31. Saddlers.
- 33. Cloth-folders and finishers of French cloth.
- 34. Cooks, sellers of tripe, cooked beans, and bean-meal, vegetables, vermicelli, stews, etc.
- 35. Cloth-folders and finishers of Florentine cloth.
- 36. Tallow merchants and catgut makers.
- 37. Greengrocers.
- 38. Wagon or carriage makers.
- 39. Hat and cap makers.
- 40. Ass drivers, haulers of sand, lime, mortar, paving stone, tiles, slates, stones, and hewn stones.
- 41. Dyers of all kinds.
- 42. Painters.
- 43. Bowlmakers, dart makers, turners, spinning-wheel finishers.
- 44. Proprietors of bath rooms.
- 45. Hand porters.
- 46. Barbers.
- 47. Teachers of grammar, arithmetic, reading, and writing.
- 48. Makers and sellers of glass vessels.
- 49. Town criers.
- 50. Spiked helmet, buckle, and clasp makers.
- 51. Judges and notaries.
- 52. Money changers or bankers.
- 53. Parchment merchants and bookbinders.
- 54. Sewer cleaners and garbage removers.
- 55. Tailors, seamstresses, and menders.
- 56. Weavers of all kinds.
- 57. Journeymen and apprentices to dealers in merchandise.
- 58. Fletchers and arrow makers.
- 59. Public weighers.
- 60. Smelters and workers at furnaces, coin makers; as well as those who put the gold and silver in the furnaces; also the assayers in all money operations.
- 61. Packers.
- 62. Dicemakers.
- 63. City river fishermen.
- 64. Brick and lime burners, and makers of earthen vessels.
- 65. Manufacturers of glass vessels in the district.
- 66. Bell founders.
- 67. Wheel makers.
- 68. Lenders of draught mules.
- 69. Millstone makers.
- 70. Brokers of all kinds.
- 71. Workers in the quarry, and sellers of quarry products.
- 72. Crossbow and bow makers.
- 73. Basket makers.
- 74. Workers in the marble and sandstone quarries.
Source.
From: A. Doren, Entwicklung und Organisation der Florentiner Zünfte im 13. und 14. Zahrhundert, (Leipzig, 1897); reprinted in Roy C. Cave & Herbert H. Coulson, eds., A Source Book for Medieval Economic History, (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1936; reprint ed., New York: Biblo & Tannen, 1965), pp. 258-259.
Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton. The text has been modernized by Prof. Arkenberg.
This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.
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© Paul Halsall, October 1998
halsall@fordham.edu