CHAPTER X

THE GUILDS OF BUTCHERS, BLACKSMITHS, AND

SHOEMAKERS

LE ARTI DE BECCAI, DE FABBRI, E DE CALZOLAI

I. BUTCHERS.-War-lords, graziers and slaughterers. of Tuscany. Custom dues and evasions. Clever salesmen. Ponte Vecchio. Heads must be attached to carcases.

palettes. Fishmongers and fish. Fines and litigation.

"Wooden-shoes!"

Scant pasturage Mercato Vecchio. Florentine delicate "Cheats!" and

Scions of nobility.

II. SMITHS.-Tuscany rich in minerals. St Eloy. Primitive forges and smelting yards. "Old iron and brass to sell!" Renaissance wrought iron-work. A money-grabber. Renowned workers in metals. The Acciaiuoli family.

III. SHOEMAKERS.-"Nothing like leather!" Many associated trades. Dependent upon the Guild of Tanners. Shoemakers warned not to harbour wandering fellows. Lining of armour. Buskins worn by all classes. Flirtations.

IN

I. L'ARTE DE' BECCAI

N every list of the Florentine Guilds the "Arte de Beccai" heads the Second Division, or Lesser Guilds, and occupies the first place among the Five Intermediate Guilds.

The term Beccai was originally applied to the highest families in Italy. The war-lords, who set out from Germany in the Middle Ages, possessed themselves of the fat of the lands they traversed-seizing cattle and stock of all kinds, and robbing castles and villages with impunity. The use of the word in this sense by Dante, it is said, greatly offended Francis I.

Something of the same feeling seems to have been shared by the Renaissance Florentines, who strove to differentiate between Beccai-graziers—and Macellai-slaughterers. Anyhow the Guild was, at its first inception in the thirteenth century, composed of

wholesale dealers: the corporation of retail butchers being a later arrangement.

The earliest mention of a "butcher" in the Archives of Florence is of one "Martinus-beccadore" in 1110, but whether he was a member of such a Guild as that in Paris, to which King Philip, in 1162, granted a charter, nobody can say.1

It is true that in every country in Europe in the Middle Ages "butchers" played a leading rôle, not alone in the arena of commercial enterprise but in that too of political activity. This preeminence was in part due to hereditary antecedents and traits, and in part to effective physical culture. Bodily strength and force of character were ever potential attributes of success in life generally, and these were marks of the Beccai of Florence in particular.

There can be no doubt that two motives largely influenced the incorporation of the Beccai. First, the breeders and graziers of cattle and sheep needed to protect themselves, their lands, and their stock, from the attacks of robber captains and cattle raiders : and secondly, they wished to control the supply of meat, and to keep the retail-butchers and slaughterers out of the wholesale market.

The latter precaution was soon seen to be unwise, for, with the rapid growth of the population, retail-butchers became a necessity, and amicable terms between the two sections of meatmerchants proved to be the best policy.

The first distinct mention of the "Arte de' Beccai" was in 1236, when the Buonuomini, who took in hand the reformation and classification of the trades of Florence, placed it eighth in the order of the Guilds, and named it first among the Fourteen Lesser Guilds. This priority of position was due to the influential character of the first members of the Corporation. They were not only simple country breeders and peasant traders, but many among them were prosperous city manufacturers and merchants. These rich men found, in the possession of poderi, farm lands

1 Davidssohn, "Geschichte von Florenz."

and stock, safe and profitable investments for their capital. This economical condition affords an interesting parallel to the much earlier absorption of the landed Grandi by the city Popolani-a reflexive movement of high political importance.

The "Guild of Butchers" retained its premier rank at the revision and enlargement of the Guilds in 1266, by which date probably, the two sections,-Beccai and Macellai, had discovered the advantages of co-operation and mutual respect.

In the list of Guilds, revised in 1280 and 1282, a further distinction was awarded the "Guild of Butchers." It was placed first of the "Five Intermediate Guilds," which were for many years classed among the "Twelve Greater Guilds."

This arrangement proved the importance and influence of the butchering confraternity in the Commonwealth, and it also led to the addition of a powerful company to the trained bands of the city. No Guild company carried its gonfalon with a higher hand, or was capable of giving a better account of itself in times of stress, than the slaughterers who were born fighting men.

By the end of the thirteenth century the position and character of the Guild were fully recognised. No Confraternity possessed a finer or more sumptuously furnished Residence than that which housed its Consuls by the side of Or San Michele, and no banner flaunted more proudly than that of the black goat upon its yellow field—the armorial bearings of the Guild.

The Beccai were, from the first, faced by a great natural difficulty which needed brains and means to overcome. The Vale of Arno was a fruitful garden and land could hardly be spared for grass. The uplands and the Tuscan hills afforded only poor pasture, quite sufficient perhaps for the growth of wool, but unsuitable for fattening purposes. Consequently flocks and herds had to be driven to distant localities where richer eatage could be found.

Journeys to and fro, in and out of Tuscany, called for heavy outlay in shepherding, and involved duties at the frontiers of foreign States. The risks of travel and the losses by the way