Merchants' attitudes to work in the Barcelona of the later Middle Ages: organisation of working space,distribution of time and scope of investments

The debate concerning the attitude to work of medieval and renaissance merchants has been one of the most intense in twentieth-century historiography. Arising from the publication of the classic works of the sociologist Max Weber, the debate entered the field of historiography proper after the appearance of articles by Werner Sombart and Henri Pirenne. In the 1950s and 1960s, the works of Yves Renouard and Armando Sapori centred discussion on the development of a specifically mercantile culture in the Italy of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In this historiographic context, the article below is an attempt to approach, through original sources, the figure of the merchant in late medieval Barcelona. These sources are inventories, wills, and marriage contracts, through which is offered a three-dimensional analysis of the professional culture of such a merchant; the concept of professional space; the organisation of time; and the bearings of his commercial and patrimonial investments. The result of this analysis is an attempt to reinterpret the decadence of Barcelona at the end of the fifteenth century through the notion of work entertained by those involved in commerce, attempting by this means to merge the consideration of economic and cultural matters. It is also a proposal for a model of analysis of professional categories, which on so many occasions have been left to one side because of the preponderance of more traditional questions such as those concerning society, economics or politics.     

True blue: the connection between colour and loyalty in the later Middle Ages

ABSTRACT

This article examines the relationship between the colour blue and the virtue of loyalty during the later Middle Ages. While it may not have been a colour with powerful symbolic resonances earlier in the medieval epoch, blue came to be regarded as increasingly prestigious as the period progressed. References to its association with loyalty and its concomitant virtues appear on the Continent and found their way to England. After briefly outlining the significance of blue in the medieval period, the paper examines this connection between colour and virtue in literature, heraldic treatises and works of art, arguing that it became generally accepted, although not all agreed on the association.     

Wild Birds of the Italian Middle Ages: Diet,Environment and Society

ABSTRACT

Wild birds are intrinsically associated with our perception of the Middle Ages. They often feature in heraldic designs, paintings, and books of hours; few human activities typify the medieval period better than falconry. Prominent in medieval iconography, wild birds feature less frequently in written sources (as they were rarely the subject of trade transactions or legal documents) but they can be abundant in archaeological sites. In this paper we highlight the nature of wild bird exploitation in Italian medieval societies, ranging from their role as food items to their status and symbolic importance. A survey of 13 Italian medieval sites corresponding to 19 ‘period sites’, dated from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, reveals the occurrence of more than 100 species (certainly an under-estimate of the actual number). Anseriformes and Columbiformes played a prominent role in the mid- and late medieval Italian diet, though Passeriformes and wild Galliformes were also important. In the late Middle Ages, there is an increase in species diversity and in the role of hunting as an important marker of social status.     

Review article: Parents and Children in the Early Middle Ages

Books reviewed in this article:
Katrien Heene, The Legacy of Paradise. Marriage, Motherhood and Women in Carolingian Edifying Literature
Marcelle Thiébaux (ed), Dhuoda, Handbook for her Warrior Son. Liber Manualis
Sally Crawford, Childhood in Anglo-Saxon England