IMC 2007: Sessions

Paper a: Craft guilds played quite precociously, that is already in the 13th century, a vital role in the economic and political life of Verona. A fundamental role was that of the Domus mercatorum, which governed the arts and solved their most important disputes, becoming the link between the city productive world and its political government. For this reason the Scaligeri made it a critical element in their seignorial power. The statutes of the Domus (neglected up until today), reorganized in 1319 together with those of the arts are an important source for reconstructing such a typical political-economic organization.
Paper b: The aim of the paper is to examine the role women in the guilds and fraternities in four cities in the Baltic Sea region in Flensburg, Stockholm, Riga and Reval during the late Middle Ages. In all these cities there were several guilds and fraternities with similar type of administration and other common features, but there were also significant differences. One of the differences was the role of women in the guilds and fraternities. In Flensburg the smallest community there was a strong female participation in the guilds while in Riga and especially in Reval there were restrictions in female participation in the guilds. Stockholm shared similar features with Flensburg. The question is how do we explain these differences in these four cities in Baltic Sea region.