THE GUILDS OF FLORENCE.*

THE subject of this handsome book is a much larger and more difficult one than appears on the surface. Its thorough study means an immense amount of original research among materials which, though they certainly exist, are beyond the reach of any student not equipped, as the author hints in his preface, with unlimited time and unlimited money. He has therefore contented himself, tea certain degree, with the use of translations and of the readings of various experts. This does not mean, however, that his work has not the merit of originality. It represents an amount of real knowledge of the special subject, the unique system of the Trade and Art Guilds and the technical learning of the Florentines, as well as of their history so far as these things influenced it, which is possessed by very few. The book is a perfect mine of information as to the city of Florence in the most intimate aspects of her wonderful life from the beginning of the twelfth to nearly the middle of the sixteenth century. The liberties of Florence and her citizens, the glories of her existence as a free city, were "rung down" when the great • The Guilds of Florence. By Edgeumbe Staley. Illustrated after Miniatures in Illuminated Manuscripts and Florentine Woodcuts. London Methuen and Co. [16s. net.] bell of the Bamako tolled for the last time on October let, 1.532. It was taken down and destroyed by order of Alessandro .de' Medici, the first ruler of the newly formed- duchy, after the

sun of the Republic had set. He was afraid of the loud voice which had spoken so long of the old free customs of the city.

Mr. Staley's book is not precisely one to read through. It is a valuable work of reference, where every one who loves Florence and her history may find her mediaeval life repro- duced from many sources difficult of access to the ordinary

'reader. The very numerous illustrations are far from being the least valuable or least instructive part. They are extremely well chosen and interesting. They illustrate in the most literal sense all the arts and industries of old Florence, as well as the appearance of the city during the four centuries

of her glory. The book would be worth having for its pictures alone.

The story of the Guilds, in all their fascinating variety, has never yet, we believe, been completely told. Mr. Staley speaks of his own work with characteristic modesty ; but be has certainly done a great deal by way of filling up this gap in general knowledge. Beginning with an interesting chapter on Florentine trade and industry from the very earliest times, and describing the foundation of the University, which was so closely united with the life of the citizens, work of head and

work of band going on side by side as they have never done since, the author then plunges straight into the story of the Guilds, showing the mediaeval idea of what a community ought to be. Not that the original conception was mediaeval. So long ago, it is supposed, as the days of Nutua Pompilins the merchants and artisans of Rome formed themselves into corporations called collegia or scholac, working together for

mutual advantage in their various trades and professions. The system died for a time with the fall of the Empire and the advance of the Dark Agea. But it was born again on its native soil early in the ninth century, when civilisation began to show sparks of life in the various Italian cities. Then,

after the first division into Grandi and Popolani, the Guilds or

Companies developed by slow degrees, nobles and burghers joining alike in the industrial life of the city. Great rivalries and class hatreds existed between the different grades of society in spite of these democratic ideas; but the importance of the Guilds and the march of their history are not much affected by details such as these.

The Florentine G-uilds were not all of the same importance. There were the seven Greater Guilds (le Arti Maggiori) : these included the Judges and Notaries, the Bankers and Money- changers, the Doctors and Apothecaries, the Guild of the

Catimala (the Merchants in cloth), the Guilds of Wool, of Silk, and of Furriers and Skinners. The Calimala, which both

imported and manufactured cloth, was the greatest mercantile Guild of Florence, and the second in dignity among them all.

The five Intermediate Guilds (le Arti Mediane) were those Of the Butchers, the Blacksmiths, the Shoemakers, the Masters of Stone and Wood, the retail Cloth-dealers and Linen- makers. The nine Minor Guilds (le Ara Minori) were those of the Wine-merchants, the Innkeepers, the Tanners, the Oil-merchants and Provision-dealers, the Saddlers, the Locksmiths, the Armourers, the Carpenters, the Bakers.

This was the first list, that of the thirteenth century. But there were many changes in the direction of number and variety. Associations of workpeople enrolled themselves in corporations, which were only recognised, apparently, when Guild-taxes came to be levied upon them. In the fourteenth century forty-four Guilds were subscribing to the war loan.

But the original twenty-one appear to have claimed and •held precedence down to the latest days of the Republic.

It is a little difficult to see bow all the inhabitants of Florence could have been fitted into these first Guilds. For it was necessary that this should be done :—

"Every man and boy turned sixteen years of age was obliged to become a member of a Guild or Trade Corporation. Any one who failed in this respect was dubbed Scioperato," Loafer,' and had no voice in the city's affairs. He was a bye-word and a mocking to every passer-by, and was treated to more kicks than denari, and, not uncommonly, was taken up and lodged in a dungeon, or his feet placed in the stocks, as being a useless ineumbrance and a disgrace to the city. Moreover, his family lost caste in whatever circle it was, and had even to pay a penalty for possessing such a good-for-nothing fellow 1"

At the same time, one could not enter a Guild without fulfilling certain conditions 1. To be a native-born Florentine.

2. To have two sponsors for family and personal character. 3. Never to have been before magistrates for any misdemeanour. 4. To be possessed of a property qualification—either his own or accruing at the death of his father. 5. To pay a tax of silver to the State by way of caution-money. 6. To pay an entrance-fee to the particular Guild."

It strikes one that there ought to have been a good many scioperati in the city of Florence. The actual fact that there were few is a marvellous testimony to the stern and fine life of the old Florentines. Nearly every man in the city, noble or simple, was a master or probationer in a Merchant Guild, or a master, workman, or apprentice in a Craft Guild.

It is impossible here to dwell in detail on the rules of life and work of the various Guilds, or on the results of their wonderful activity. For all this we must refer the reader to the interesting chapters that Mr. Staley has devoted to each one of them. It is perhaps enough to remind ourselves that Florence herself, with her great monuments as we see them to-day, is the work of these Guilds, and that to realise their immortal fame we have only to look around us in her streets and palaces and churches. Of course, as every one who knows Florence is aware, Or San Michele is the special sanctuary of the Guilds :— "Around its outer walls, enshrined in little temples of their own, stand great statues of saints in marble and bronze by the hands of the greatest sculptors of Florence—the canonised patrons of the Arts or Guilds, keeping guard over the thronging crowds that pass below. This is the grand monument of the wealth and taste, devotion and charity, of the commercial democracy of the Middle Ages."

Mr. Staley has not quite the literary skill possessed by the writer of the above ; but he gives an excellent account of the history of this famous building, with curious illustrations to bring its past uses before our eyes. It is a romantic story : the destruction of the old Church of St. Michael in the Garden to make room for the grain-market, the building of the loggia, the adorning of it with Ugolino da Siena's famous picture of the Madonna; then, as the fame of her miracles increased, the building of the present church to serve partly as a corn-exchange, partly as an Oratory of Our Lady of Or San Michele. And the whole work, outside and in, was executed by the hands or at the charges of the Arts or Guilds of Florence, especially the Guild of Silk. The famous Company of Or San Michele, the Laudesi, as they were called, a confraternity including members of all the greater Guilds, commissioned Orcagna to make his glorious tabernacle for the sacred picture. And all the Guilds, except a few minor ones, rivalled each other in providing the beautiful statues of their patron saints, their arms being carved or modelled in the tondi above. It must be remembered that Donatello's St. George, removed to the Bargello, originally stood in one of Allege shrines at Or San Michele.

The history of this church and the charities that were connected with it only suggests one side of the life and work of those old Florentines. But it seems to have been a necessary side. Wars and tumults were al ways with them, but as long as materialism did not conquer faith, and as long as men had the gifts of humility and obedience, and could live, body and soul, as members of communities such as their ancient Arti, so long the city of Florence kept her freedom and her glory :— " The gradual extinction of public spirit, the slow deterioration of general character, and the sapping of personal energy, are the dull tones which tinge with melancholy the later pages of Florentine history."