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Yes agreed, the question is how representative is he vis-a-vis the middle? And how much property did a middling artisan or bottom tier ‘full citizen’ have in various regions. Certainly day laborers are indeed poorer than artisans.
Normally at least for Central or Southern Europe the term is usually craft rather than trade. German ‘handwerker’ Italian ‘artigiano’, Czech ‘řemeslník’, Polish ‘rzemieślnik’, Swedish ‘hantverkare’, etc.
I know that in some towns, artisans of specific crafts were well enough off that they were expected to provide not only weapons and armor, but also horse(s) for the militia. For example in Wismar in 1483 the butchers made up the bulk of the cavalry in their militia. I also know that wealthier craft artisans often owned more than one house or building. Some of them were involved in business complexes and / or were at the top of networks of subcontractors, whereas others (often but not always younger) were effectively the employees of these types.
Town laws in different towns encouraged such specific types of stratification.
One historian noted that the second lowest tier of residents of Frankfurt in 1380, consisting of 40% of the population (this list included citizens, partial citizens, and also non citizens or ‘denizens’ like servants and semi-skilled laborers) owned property between 12 and 20 florins. Below that was a tier of poorer servants and day laborers (20% of the population) who had less than 12 florins.
12 -20 florins is not a lot but it’s hardly trivial – I think it’s much more money than you would find in the hands of most of the people in say 17th Century London or Paris.
Here are some probate records from England in the 14th and 15th Centuries:
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cme;idno=EEWills
Anyway, I think this is a great type of data source to look at – inventories of goods for probate / wills, and also for taxes and for militia inspections. Anne Tlusty goes over some of the latter type data in her Martial Ethic. The towns inspected people’s houses to see if they were sufficiently well armed, she has some statistics on that although almost all of her data is unfortunately 16th and 17th Centuries.
For example in 1584, Raymond Fugger, obviously a very, very rich man, was found to have 9 sets of complete harness, 20 long guns, 20+ pistols, 36 swords, 23 polearms and “a variety of other weapons including battle axes, war hammers and maces”. Obviously that guy could have outfitted an entire army (and routinely did).
IIRC she gets into more detail in that section though. I’ll go pull the book down from the shelf again and have a look later.
Yes, but as with so many other things in the late medieval period, there was a great deal of regional variation. What is true in Bristol or even Dijon is not necessarily true in Florence, or Zurich or Krakow. Especially with cities.
The Rhine is a big dividing line for this kind of stuff. When it comes to artisans, it also varied a lot from town to town. In one city, shoemakers might be a prominent craft, in another they may be marginal. In each town there were some dominant crafts, sometimes specialists like goldsmiths or cutlers, sometimes big industrial crafts like weavers – and there were also always ‘lesser crafts’.
Generally though artisans usually did live in small houses, but that didn’t mean they were anywhere near as poor as was typical in English or French towns the 17th or 18th Centuries.
A Welsh version https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_Lwyd
This is (one of) the version(s) in the Caribbean
Very interesting and I’d love to see more of these. I’m not sure I agree with your conclusion as far as the rarity and value of metal objects in the 15th Century, in fact I categorically do not, but nevertheless you are bringing good data to the table.
It does indeed matter if this guy is a cobbler or a shoemaker, cobblers only repaired shoes and were low-ranked artisans (who thus could be expected to be poor), while shoemakers were mid-ranked artisans who should have more money.
A lot of artisans also lived in small places – bottom floor is the shop, second (first to Europeans) floor is the residence, and sometimes attic or third (second) floor or attic is a kind of storage warehouse.
These kinds of lists are a lot of times legal documents related to disposing of property. This may have been what was left over after his wife or kids took their share.
But regardless, good data. I’ll see if I can find a few of these myself!
This one shows both of Henry’s breach-loaders
https://collections.royalarmouries.org/media/emumedia/321/363/large_A9_817.jpg
Firearms before their time
Breech-loading matchlock arquebus, Nuremberg 1470
More about this breech loader here
Plan for a nearly identical weapon from a manuscript from 1456 by Lorenzo Ghiberti
Eight barrel matchlock revolver from 1580 Nuremberg
Breech-loading wheelock pistol, ~1560, GermanMatchlock breechloader for Henry VIII (one of two he possessed, and used multiple times for hunting) – 1537
This was originally a wheel-lockhttps://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-264.html
Fernão Mendes Pinto
Portuguese historians for future reference:
Diogo do Couto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogo_do_Couto
João de Barros
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_de_Barros
C. E. Boxer
A Moro tribesman with mail-and-plate armor and his lovely barong
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/ed/d9/67/edd9679f5ced97b4b5e7dc6082485e0f–armors-tribal-warrior.jpg
Here are a few interesting characters from the 16th Century / Pacific Rim area
Timoji, a South Asian pirate and privateer who allied himself with the Portuguese
Tomé Pires a Portuguese apothecary who lived in Malacca, and later as the first Portuguese diplomat in Ming China. He wrote a detailed book about his experiences, unfortunately beyond my current budget. He makes for a cool character archetype (he’s an apothecary!) but his description of the city of Malacca, where 84 dialects were spoken, is the most interesting thing about him. That book will be a fantastic resource for any campaign set in this era, eventually I’ll find a copy.
Lapulapu was a Filipino chieftain or Datu who is mainly known for having slain Ferdinand Magellan at the battle of Mactan with his Kampilan sword. He was a pirate, originating in Borneo, who settled and controlled the island of Mactan. Much of his life is semi-legendary.
Antonio Pigafetta was a Venetian scholar who was assistant to Magellan during his famous voyage. He was one of the 18 survivors who made it back to Spain in 1522, out of 240 who set out in the expedition. Born in 1480 in Venice, though he died at the age of 40, he lived to see the wonders of the Pacific and many other parts of the world. Like Tomé Pires he wrote a book, his was called Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo, and it contains many beautiful maps and illustrations.
Map of Borneo from Pigafetta’s bookDuarte Fernandes was a Portuguese tailor who was part of one of the first Europeans to visit the Kingdom of Siam (Thailand), in 1511. After taking part in a mutiny, he was spared due to his ‘amiable nature’ and later send as an ambassador to Siam, where he was successful in his mission and helped establish friendly relations with the Portuguese colony in Malacca. He took a specific interest in Chinese shipbuilding and was fascinated by the Chinese junk.
Diogo Veloso a Portuguese sailor and merchant, he is known as the first European in Laos. He became personal friends with a Cambodian King named Satha, and was then involved in intrigue between several Cambodian city-states. Together with his friend the Spaniard Blas Ruiz they attempted to restore King Satha to power in Laos, but upon learning he had died, they managed to foment a rebellion, though it ultimately failed.
Blas Ruiz, a Spanish sailor and possibly a minor noble, in addition to being part of the above adventures, he instigated the ill-fated Spanish invasion of Cambodia, in another attempt to restore their friend King Sathah to power. Interestingly, the Spanish sent 3 ships with Spanish, Filipino Japanese and Mexican soldiers. Blas Ruiz was probably killed by Malay mercenaries in the hire of King Satha’s son and rival.
Finally – this isn’t a person but another source. The Códice Casanatense is a Portuguese illustrated almanac of the world as it appeared to them from the Red Sea, down the coast of Africa, across India and to the Pacific Rim. It gives us kind of a snapshot of what the world looked like to them. Here are a few of the many fascinating pictures from it:
Abyssinian / Ethiopian warrior and wife
Turks from the Red Sea area
Swimming pool in Gujarat, India
Women hunting on horseback in Patna
Warriors from Ceylon
