manufacturers or producers (_menestrales de manos_) and merchants
or shopkeepers (_mercaderes de tienda y de escriptorio_), who
merely trafficked in what was executed by another.
The formula of admission to a Spanish brotherhood was very quaint in its
punctilious and precise severity. A notice of this ceremony, relating to
the Cofradía of Saint Eligius, or Silversmiths' Brotherhood of
Seville,[67] is quoted by Gestoso from the venerable _Regla de
Hermandad_ or statutes of the members, preserved in a codex dating from
the first half of the sixteenth century. It was required that the
candidate for admission should be a silversmith, married in conformity
with the canons of the church, a man well spoken of among his
neighbours, and not a recent convert to the Christian faith. The day
prescribed for choosing or rejecting him was that which was consecrated
to Saint John the Baptist, coinciding with the festival of Saint Eligius
or San Loy, "patron and representative" of silversmiths, and who in life
had been a silversmith himself. The regulations of the Cofradía decreed
the following method of election. "In the chest belonging to the
Brotherhood shall be kept a wood or metal vessel with space sufficient
to contain some fifty beans or almonds; and the said vessel shall be set
in our chapter-room, in a spot where no man is. Each of the brothers
that are present shall next be given one of the beans or almonds, and,
rising from his seat, arrange his cloak about him so as to conceal his
hands, in order that none may witness whether he drops, or does not
drop, the almond or the bean into the vessel. Then, with due
dissimulation, he shall proceed to where the vessel lies, and if he deem
that he who seeks to be admitted as our brother be an honourable man,
and such as shall contribute to the lustre of our Brotherhood, then
shall he drop in a bean or almond, and return to his seat, still
covering his hands with his cloak. But if, upon the contrary, he deem
that the said candidate be a sinner, and a riotous fellow and bad
Christian, that should prove a source of evil and vexation to our
chapter, or that hath wronged another of our brethren, then shall he not
cast in the bean or almond, but secretly reserve the same, and once more
seat himself. Lastly, when all shall have crossed over to and from the
vessel, they shall bear it to the table where the officers sit, and void
it in the sight of all the company, and count the beans or almonds; and
if the number of these be full, then is it clear that we do receive the
other for our _Hermano_. But if there be a bean or almond wanting, in
that a brother hath retained it in his fingers, then shall our
_Alcaldes_ speak to this effect. 'Señores: here wants a bean or almond'
(or two, or any number, as may be). 'Within eight days from now let him
that kept it back present himself to us, or to any one of us, and give
account why he that sought admission to our Brotherhood deserves to be
rejected.' And if the brother that kept back the bean or almond should
not present himself within the appointed time, then shall the
Brotherhood admit the other: but if he appear, and state a lawful cause
against the other's entry, then our _Alcaldes_, when this last presents
himself to learn their resolution, shall urge him to have patience, in
that not all the brothers are content with him, albeit, if such cause
consisteth in a quarrel between a brother and the candidate for entry,
peace may be brought about between the two, and afterward the _Cofradía_
may admit him of their number."
[67] This guild, as all the others, held an annual convocation of its
members, and possessed a chapel of its own in the convent of San
Francisco. It exercised a strict and constant supervision upon the
gold and silver work produced throughout the city. On April 15th,
1567, the inspectors appointed and salaried by the guild visited
the shop of Antonio de Cuevas, and seized an _Agnus Dei_ and a
faultily executed cross, both of which objects were destroyed
forthwith. On February 8th, 1569, they repeated their visit to the
same silversmith, and seized an _apretador_, which was likewise
broken up. On February 9th, 1602, they entered the shop of Antonio
de Ahumada, and took away "two rings, a gold _encomienda_, a cross
of Saint John, some small cocks, a toothpick, and a San Diego of
silver." Similar notices of fines, confiscations, and other
punishments exist in great abundance, and may be studied in
Gestoso's dictionary. See also Vol. I., p. 114, of the present
work.
Similar ceremonies and customs were observed in old Toledo (see the
Ordinances of this city, dated June 24th, 1423, renewed and amplified in
1524).[68] Here also the silversmiths agreed to meet and celebrate the
festival of their patron saint upon one day in every year, "for ever and
for ever" (_para siempre jamás_). On these occasions the image of the
saint was carried in procession, and a repast was given to the brothers
themselves, as well as to all persons who were "willing to receive it
for the love of God." Every brother who failed to present himself at
this solemnity was fined one pound of candle-wax; but if he were merely
unpunctual, and arrived "after the singing of the first three psalms,"
the fine was only half a pound. A pound of candle-wax was also the
statutory tribute for admission to the Brotherhood, together with a
hundred _maravedis_ and other unimportant sums in cash.
The history of the _gremios_ of Valencia has been traced in an
instructive essay by Luis Tramoyeres Blasco. Early in the fifteenth
century guilds were established here of nearly thirty trades, including
tailors, millers, carpenters, shoemakers, silversmiths, weavers,
tanners, dyers, swordsmiths, and bonnet-makers. These guilds developed
greatly in the sixteenth century, expanding into powerful and wealthy
bodies, who practically controlled the entire commerce and commercial
products of their native town. Among the _gremios_ instituted at a later
date were those of the firework-makers, basket-makers, twisters of
silk, stiffeners of dress fabrics, bell-founders, and painters of
chests and boxes, each of these corporations being enrolled by law, and
possessing a code of regulations for the government and guidance of its
members. Sometimes, however, owing to diminution in its trade, a guild
became extinct, as happened with the _guadamacileros_ (see Vol. II., pp.
38 _et seq._), and with the clothmakers, of whom, in 1595, but three
remained in all Valencia. Or else a _gremio_ would purposely amalgamate
with, or merge insensibly into, another. Thus in 1668 the tailors and
the makers of trunk-hose united in a single corporation, just as, at
other times, the glovers and the parchment-dressers, the clog-makers and
the shoemakers.
[68] The foremost in importance of the _gremios_ of Toledo was that of
the silk-weavers (_arte mayor de la seda_), whose earliest
ordinances date from A.D. 1533.
Interesting particulars of the old Toledan _gremios_ generally will
be found in the municipal archives of this city, in the _Ordenanzas
para el buen régimen y gobierno de la muy noble, muy leal é
imperial ciudad de Toledo_ (reprinted in 1858); in Martín Gamero's
_History of Toledo_; and in the Count of Cedillo's scholarly
monograph, _Toledo in the Sixteenth Century_.
Those of the Valencian guilds which possessed the greatest influence and
resources, and enjoyed the highest privileges from the city or the
crown, were called _colegiados_. Among them were the velvet-makers,
hatters, bronze-founders, wax-makers, confectioners, dyers, and makers
of silk hose. The earliest to obtain this coveted and honourable title
were the booksellers, in 1539, followed by the wax-makers in 1634, the
confectioners in 1644, the velvet-makers also in this year, and others
in succession, terminating with the dyers in 1763, the hatters in 1770,
the bell-founders in 1772, and the makers of silk stockings in 1774.
According to Tramoyeres, most of the Valencian trade-guilds owned a
building in fee-simple, and often gave the title of their craft to the
entire street in which that edifice was situated. Nor did the _gremios_,
in their evolution from the simpler and less mercenary form of
brotherhood or _cofradía_, wholly abandon the religious ceremonies of
their prototype. In almost every instance the guild erected and
maintained a chapel within its private _domicilio_, chose a particular
saint to be its patron, and held, with fitting pomp and liberality, a
yearly celebration of that patron's holy-day.
On these occasions masses and other services were said or sung, and the
embroidered banner of the guild, together with the image (which was
often of silver) of its tutelar saint, was carried in procession through
the streets of this bright city of the south, abounding at all seasons
in flowers and sunshine, and famed, from the remotest days of Spanish
history, for the splendour and munificence of her public festivals.
Our earliest record of the formal attendance of the _gremios_ of
Valencia at one of her _fiestas_, goes back to the visit to this capital
of King Pedro the Second, in 1336, when the guilds were marshalled in
military fashion, company by company, each headed by its pennon "_á la
saga dels primers_," that is, next to the group or company immediately
in front of it. In 1392, upon the visit of another monarch, Juan the
First, who was accompanied by his queen, Violante, a more elaborate
character was given to the welcome. Jongleurs and dancers were hired to
perform, while several of the _gremios_ constructed decorative scenes or
allegorical tableaux on a platform or a waggon, which was wheeled along
the street in slow procession, surrounded by the marching members of the
guild. One of these structures represented the winged dragon or
_drach-alat_ which figures so conspicuously in the records of Valencia
(see Vol. I., p. 210), and was attacked and overcome in mimic combat by
a body of knights armed cap-à-pie. The mariners of the port built two
large galleys, also moved on wheels and simulating an attack, and the
_freneros_ or bit-makers presented a gathering of folk disguised as
savages. Nor was the bullfight--that most characteristic of Spanish
sports--omitted from the entertainment, judging from the following entry
in the city archives: "Item. Sien aemprats los prohomens carnicers a
procurar e haver toros e fer per sos dies feta la dita entrada joch ab
aquells specialment en lo mercat com sia cert quel Senyor Rey se agrada
e pren plaer de tal joch."
A typical _fiesta_ and procession of these trade-guilds is described by
Tramoyeres. "Formed in two long lines, the members of the guild advanced
along the tortuous and narrow highways of the town, adorned with
tapestries and altars. Each _gremio_ was preceded by a band of
cymbal-beaters, pipers, and jongleurs, sometimes accompanied by a
_comparsa_ allusive to the ceremony now being celebrated. Next came the
standard of the master-craftsmen and apprentices, each group of whom
attended its _divisa_ or distinguishing emblem. Close after followed the
banner of the craft in general, carried by one or two of the
_oficiales_, who made display of their dexterity and strength by
supporting the staff of the banner upon their shoulder, the palm of the
hand, or the under-lip. The cords of the banner were held by the
officers of the guild, denominated _mayorales_, _clavarios_ and
_prohombres_; behind these came the masters, and last of all, a
triumphal car on which were represented scenes relating to the craft.
Thus, in the year 1655, at the commemoration of the second centenary of
the canonization of Saint Vincent Ferrer, the _gremios_ showed
particular ingenuity and novelty in these devices." Don Marco Antonio
Ortí, who wrote an account of the festival in question, thus describes a
few of them. "The millers were preceded by a waggon drawn by four mules
and covered with boughs and flowers. On it was the imitation of a
windmill, wheel and every other part, contrived so cunningly that
although the wheel went round at a great speed, the artifice which
caused it to revolve was kept from view, and in the time that the
procession lasted, it ground to flour a whole _caliz_ of wheat." Another
invention, says the same chronicler, was that of the masons. "The scene
devised by these was a triumphal car, handsomely adorned, on which was
borne the great tower (of the cathedral),[69] imitated so skilfully that
it seemed to have been rooted from its foundation, and replanted in the
car aforesaid; and so enormous was its size that a special spot required
to be chosen in which to set it up. This was in the garden of La Punta;
and when the tower was finished and ready to be taken forth, a breach
for its passage had to be opened in the garden wall. It even contained a
peal of bells, which rang by turning round and round, and this invention
of the bells, besides its ingenuity, was rarely fitted to this festival,
seeing that the clock-bell of the cathedral (that is the greatest of
them all) was given, when it was baptized, the name of San Vicente's
bell, as well as of Saint Michael the Archangel; whence the tower itself
is called the Micalet, this, in the language of Valencia, being the
diminutive for Michael. It were impossible to imagine the stir and the
applause excited in all quarters of the city by the passage of this
tower."
[69] That is, the ponderous structure known as the Miguelete, which
stands unfinished to this day.
The same writer describes the decorative car or waggon of the
flax-weavers. "Upon it were a woman seated beneath a canopy, weaving at
a frame, and representing Santa Ana, the child Jesus making _cañillas_,
and an aged man, for San Antonio, dressed as a hermit, with a live
sucking-pig at his side. Before these went Our Lady riding on a jennet,
with a child in her arms, her right hand held by a man of venerable age
representing Saint Joseph. This artifice was symbolic of the weavers'
trade, receiving for this reason great applause, as well as for the
lavish decoration of, and curious details that were in, the car."
Tramoyeres further explains that the guild which took first place in the
procession was that which had been most recently created, the oldest and
most honoured coming last. At Valencia this proud position was held from
the remotest period by the clothmakers; but from time to time, when
these for any cause were absent from the festival, their place was taken
by one or other of two companies almost as ancient and as
honourable--the tanners or the tailors.
Each guild selected an official dress or livery, distinguished from the
others by its colour or design:--the tailors, purple and white; the
weavers, rose with black sleeves; the cutlers, crimson with green
sleeves and sprinkled with golden roses; the millers, white with
crimson-striped sleeves; the silversmiths, crimson with silver trimming;
and so forth. Their banners, too, were quite in harmony with the rich
apparel of the vain _agremiados_. According to an author of the
seventeenth century, these flags were "not of war, but of a different
workmanship, and greatly larger. All are of damask, most being coloured
crimson, and the poles sustaining them, and terminated by an image of
the sainted patron of the guild, are longer than the longest pike of
war. Truly, a splendid show these banners make, displayed with fringes
of drawn gold, and shields embroidered with the same material."
The image in which the pole of the banner concluded was not, however,
invariably that of a saint, or of a saint alone. In the case of the
cask-makers it was a golden tun surmounted by a cross, with figures of
Saint Helen and the Emperor Constantine standing on either side of it.
That of the armourers was a bat (the _rat-penat_ or "winged rat"
contained in the _escudo_ of Valencia); that of the cloth-shearers, a
pair of scissors with a golden crown and the image of Saint Christopher;
of the fishermen, a boat containing Saint Peter and Saint Andrew; of the
clothmakers, a sphere inscribed with the name of Jesus; of the
stonemasons, a silver millwheel and a silver image of the Virgin.
Similarly, each _gremio_ displayed upon its coat-of-arms some kind of
emblem such as the implement, or implements, associated with its
trade:--the silversmiths, a square and compass; the carpenters, a
hatchet and a saw; the lock-smiths, a pair of hammers and an anvil.
Quaintly instructive are the dispositions of the guilds relating to
apprenticeship. The _maestro_ of a trade, described by the Count of
Torreánaz as "the principal worker in the workshop," agreed to feed,
clothe, and instruct his apprentice or _discípulo_, and treat him
generally as a member of his own family. He was permitted to punish his
apprentice for misconduct, but not to employ excessive physical
violence; and a law of Jayme the First decreed that if the apprentice
lost one or both of his eyes from a blow inflicted by his master, the
latter was to "make good the injury" (_sia tengut del mal que li haura
feyt_).
The number of apprentices allowed in any one workshop was often (and
subsequently to the fifteenth century, nearly always) regulated by the
law. The first disposition of this kind discovered by Tramoyeres dates
from the year 1451, and refers to the shoemakers, whose apprentices
might not outnumber three to each _maestro_.[70] Similarly, by
provisions issued at a later date, the mattress-makers and the builders
were allowed no more than two apprentices, and the silk-weavers three,
although sometimes the master might admit an extra _aprenent_ or so, on
payment of a certain sum per head.[71] The term of the apprenticeship
was also often fixed by law. In most of the trades it was four years;
but in the case of the makers of ribbons and of boxes it was five years;
while stocking-makers were apprenticed for six, and wax-makers and
confectioners for eight years.
[70] The Count of Torreánaz quotes an earlier instance, relative to
another city, from the shoemakers' ordinances of Burgos, confirmed
by the emperor Alfonso in A.D. 1270. These laws decreed, obviously
with the purpose of limiting the number of apprentices, that every
master-craftsman who engaged an apprentice was to pay two thousand
_maravedis_ "for the service of God and of the hospital." Similar
legislation, lasting many centuries, was in force elsewhere, for
Larruga says that at Valladolid, although the city produced
fourteen thousand hats yearly, most of the master-hatters had no
apprentices in their workshops, and only one _oficial_.
[71] _E.g._, the silk-weavers (Statute of 1701). "Que ningun collegial
de dit collegi puixa matricular francament mes de tres aprenents y
si volgués tenirne mes, hatja de pagar á dit collegi deu lliures,
moneda real de Valencia per cascú dels que excedirá de dit numero."
Before the father or the guardian of a lad could sign his papers of
apprenticeship, it was required (during and after the sixteenth century)
to prove before the guild, by means of his certificate of baptism, or on
the declaration of witnesses, that he was the child of parents who were
"old Christians," and not the offspring of Moor, Jew, slave, convert, or
(in the fierce expression of the stocking-makers) "any other infected
race." Still more absurd and savage was an ordinance, dated 1597, of the
shoemakers, prohibiting any master of this trade from admitting to
apprenticeship in any form, "a black boy, or one of the colour of cooked
quince, slave or Moor ... so as to avoid the harm which might befall
our brother shoemakers from the ridicule that would be stirred among the
populace, if they should see in our processions and other public acts, a
slave, or the son of a black slave, or a lad of the colour of cooked
quince, or a Moor; as well as the rioting and scandals that would be
caused by the spectacle of creatures of this nature mixing with decent,
well-dressed people."
These statutes are selected from the mass of local legislation which
concerned Valencia only. Turning to Spanish guilds at large, the study
of these institutions throws considerable light upon the customs of the
Spanish nation in the past, and more especially upon the social and
financial standing of the older Spanish craftsman. As in other
countries, the principal and primal object of the _gremio_ was to
organize a system of defence against the military and nobility, or even
against the crown. Presently, however, and long before their evolution
is completed, errors become apparent in the statutes or proceedings of
these bodies which denote, very instructively and very plainly, the
typical defects or weaknesses of the Spanish character. Foremost of all
was thriftlessness. Although it is a fact that several of the Spanish
guilds owned houses or even land, none of them (except the silversmiths
of two or three large towns) were really affluent;[72] and indeed, in a
country racked by incessant foreign wars or civil strife, there was
every reason why they should not be affluent. Yet, notwithstanding this,
in celebrating any kind of public festival, the poor _agremiado_ made no
scruple to vie in prodigal disbursements with the moneyed aristocracy,
clothing himself in fanciful and costly stuffs,[73] constructing shows
and spectacles on wheels, raising elaborate altars in the streets,
contracting for expensive services, performances, and tableaux. More
than once, the _gremios_ were obliged to borrow funds to celebrate the
festival of their patron saint.[74] So also with regard to dress. The
costumes of the guildsmen of Valencia have been already noticed. An
equal recklessness and foppery prevailed in other Spanish towns; for
instance, at Barcelona, where, on a visit of Ferdinand and Isabella in
1481, the silversmiths formed part of the procession "dressed in the
richest manner, with robes and mantles all covered with silver, and some
of them with bonnets that were all of silver plate with jewels and
silver foliage, while others wore silver chains about their necks."
[72] It is not often, for instance, that we meet with notices of Spanish
craftsmen such as Miguel Jerónimo Monegro, a silversmith of
Seville, who at his death, towards the middle of the sixteenth
century, was in a position to bequeath the following money and
effects: 15,000 _maravedis_ to his servant, Catalina Mexia, 6000
_maravedis_ to Juan Ortiz, "a boy that was in my house, that he may
learn a trade," 6000 _maravedis_ yearly to his slavewomen, Juana
and Luisa, and a black mule to his executor, Hernando de
Morales.--Gestoso, _Diccionario de Artífices Sevillanas_,
Vol. II., p. 256.
[73] This did not happen only at Valencia. The Cortes assembled at
Valladolid in 1537 complained that it was "tolerable that costly
stuffs should be worn by lords, gentlemen, and wealthy persons; but
such is become our nation, that there is not an hidalgo, squire,
merchant, or _oficial_ of any trade, but wears rich clothing;
wherefore many grow impoverished and lack the money to pay the
_alcabalas_ and the other taxes owing to His Majesty."
Fernandez de Navarrete stated, in 1626, that "the wives of common
_mecánicos_ (_i.e._ craftsmen) furnish their dwellings more
luxuriously than titled personages of the realm were wont to
furnish theirs some few years ago," and that hangings of taffeta
or Spanish _guadamecíes_ were now regarded with contempt, being
replaced, even in the homes of the moderately well-to-do, by
sumptuous fabrics of Florence and Milan, and by the costliest
Brussels tapestry.--(_Conservación de Monarquías_, p. 246).
[74] Larruga, in Vol. XVIII. of his _Memorias_, inserts an account of
the heavy debts incurred by the _gremios_ of Valladolid, upon the
celebration of various of their festivals.