Date of Award

Spring 2011

Document Type

Restricted Thesis

Terms of Use

© 2011 Elizabeth Comuzzi. All rights reserved. Access to this work is restricted to users within the Swarthmore College network and may only be used for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes. Sharing with users outside of the Swarthmore College network is expressly prohibited. For all other uses, including reproduction and distribution, please contact the copyright holder.

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

English Literature Department, Medieval Studies Program

First Advisor

Craig Williamson

Second Advisor

Stephen P. Bensch

Abstract

This paper examines complex labor patterns within craft guilds in the thirteenth-century Catalonian town of Castelló d’Empúries through analysis of the town’s notary records. It looks closely at the economic relationships between apprentices and master craftsmen, as well as laborers and artisans. Comparing different types of labor contracts illuminates a series of relationships (journeyman and apprentice, trained and untrained craftsmen, child and adult, specialized and unspecialized) that shaped Castelló’s labor system. Through these, the role of apprenticeship in both the communal and the larger medieval economic network becomes patently fluid, especially in regards to the ways in which apprentices are treated, and placed, in the labor hierarchy.

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