craft guild

organization
Also known as: mystery

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history of

    • apprenticeship
      • In apprenticeship: Early history

        …Europe in the form of craft guilds. Guild members supervised the product quality, methods of production, and work conditions for each occupational group in a town. The guilds were controlled by the master craftsmen, and the recruit entered the guild after completing his training as an apprentice—a period that commonly…

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    • guilds
      • In guild: Types and functions

        Craft guilds, on the other hand, were occupational associations that usually comprised all the artisans and craftsmen in a particular branch of industry or commerce. There were, for instance, guilds of weavers, dyers, and fullers in the wool trade and of masons and architects in…

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    • medieval Italy
      • Italy
        In Italy: Socioeconomic developments in the city

        …is there evidence again of pottery-exchange networks, but exclusively on the level of the city territory and, as far as is yet known, only around some cities—notably Rome, which remained the largest city in Italy, though it was only a fraction of its former size. City-country exchange networks were probably…

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    Portuguese:
    ‘‘guild’’
    Related Topics:
    Portugal
    craft guild

    grémio, any of the organized guilds that were founded during the Moorish occupation of Portugal (714–1249) by men who worked in the same craft and who generally lived on the same street in a given city. Each guild selected a patron saint, usually one who had shared its profession, and designed a banner with the saint depicted on it. For this reason, guilds were popularly known as bandeiras (“banners”). In the 15th century, with the development of overseas trades, the autonomous guilds became more closely linked to the royal provincial governments and councils.

    Jurisdiction over all the guilds was in the hands of the Casa dos Vinte e Quatro (“House of Twenty-four”), which was composed of two elected representatives from each of 12 guilds. Members of the house, who had to be 40 years old, were elected by a vote of two-thirds of the masters of their respective guilds.

    With the passing of the guilds’ autonomous status, they came to be used as sources of military draftees for the kings of Portugal. The guilds also became influential in the decision making of the Cortes (parliament).

    This article was most recently revised and updated by Maren Goldberg.