On Craft Guilds

[skip.knox]

I've posted the first in a series of blog entries on various medieval topics that I hope people here will find useful. This forum already has great stuff in the "Ask me about" threads, but I didn't want to start up a whole raft of those, and "Ask me about the Middle Ages" seems a bit pretentious. Besides, the blog will have a wider readership, I hope.

The main point of the entries is that it's written for fantasy writers. In each entry I have a historical section, but that's followed by a "For the Writer" section in which I suggest how that information might get used in a story. It's an approach I've not seen elsewhere and I think it will prove useful.

With that said, here is the first entry, On Craft Guilds. I hope you like it. I have about twenty such written and plan to publish a new one every couple of weeks over the coming months.

 

[SensibleRin]

Thank you!
This sounds like it will be very helpful - I love historical culture, but sometimes it's hard to know where to look.

 

[buyjupiter]

Thank you, Skip.

So far my favorite is the "proprietor of bath rooms" guild. Oddly specific, and it seems like it would lend itself to a story told outside of England fantasy, as well as outside of the normal character types.

I did like the dice makers guild as well. Again, very specialized. One would assume that the Florentine economy was booming at the time, and that the export business was doing very well. Otherwise, one court fad, and you're out of business.

 

[skip.knox]

The proprietor of bath rooms would be the owner of a public bath. Definitely outside of traditional fantasy settings, but firmly within medieval tradition, and a great setting anyway. I've got a whole essay waiting in the wings on bath houses, but here are a couple of the chief points.

A bath house was a center for town gossip. Why not have your adventurers go there to pick up rumors, as well as to the local tavern?

Business arrangements were often made at the bath house--think business club.

A bath house was also like a spa, with a fair amount of minor medical work going on, including bleeding.

The bath house could be respectable but could also be low-life, a hangout for prostitutes, cut-purses, and gamblers.

There were rural bath houses. Like your buddy's hot tub up in the mountains. Nice place for a tryst.

Bath houses could be co-ed.