The Fabric of the City: A Social History of Cloth Manufacture in Medieval Ypres
By Peter Stabel
Brepols
ISBN: 978-2-503-60051-2
A look at the cloth and textile industry in the Flemish city of Ypres, which was one of the most important centres of this trade in medieval Europe. It examines all aspects of how the industry worked – the technology, the labour, the entrepreneurs involved – as well as how having this industry affected the town. Topics within this book range from how good were wages in this industry to revolts that happened within Ypres.
Excerpt:
This book is an attempt to collect the scattered materials of earlier generations of historians and to do justice to the many source collections that were assembled before the destruction of the city archives. But it also wants to go further. Of all the cloth cities of medieval Europe Ypres was perhaps the most significant. While cities such as Florence in Tuscany or nearby Ghent, Brussels, Leiden and Mechelen may have enjoyed similar representations, Ypres’ dominance as a cloth city started earlier, and lasted longer. Moreover, as we shall see, none of the other cities were so successful in very different market segments in the way Ypres had been. In its heyday in the thirteenth century, the city’s merchants and entrepreneurs exported cloth to all parts of Europe, and when active trade fell victim of Europe’s changed commercial orientation, the city’s entrepreneurs were able to adapt their industrial output to9 these new circumstances, to new customers, new fashions, new competitors. Ypres remained throughout the fourteenth century that vibrant city. Its population may have slowly declined, but this does not mean that its industry lost its sharpness. Ypres is therefore an ideal laboratory for tracing changing social organisation in this most important of medieval industries.
Who is this book for?
This is a very interesting book if you want to know more about how business and trade worked in the Middle Ages. It covers a full range of individuals and groups involved in this industry, from the owners to the workers, including some case studies. The book is both local and international, and even tells us a lot about the technical aspects of producing cloth. Social and urban historians will also want to read this book for how it explores the interactions of the people and groups within Ypres, and how the city changed over the later Middle Ages.
The author:
Peter Stabel is a Professor at the University of Antwerp, where he focuses on the Low Countries in the Later Middle Ages, in particular economic and social topics. Click here to see his Academia.edu page.
You can also read his article, written with Anke De Meyer, on “Craft Guilds as Vectors of Middle-Class Values,” while Dutch speakers can listen to him talk about setting up a company in late medieval Bruges.
You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website
You can buy this book on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
The Fabric of the City: A Social History of Cloth Manufacture in Medieval Ypres
By Peter Stabel
Brepols
ISBN: 978-2-503-60051-2
A look at the cloth and textile industry in the Flemish city of Ypres, which was one of the most important centres of this trade in medieval Europe. It examines all aspects of how the industry worked – the technology, the labour, the entrepreneurs involved – as well as how having this industry affected the town. Topics within this book range from how good were wages in this industry to revolts that happened within Ypres.
Excerpt:
This book is an attempt to collect the scattered materials of earlier generations of historians and to do justice to the many source collections that were assembled before the destruction of the city archives. But it also wants to go further. Of all the cloth cities of medieval Europe Ypres was perhaps the most significant. While cities such as Florence in Tuscany or nearby Ghent, Brussels, Leiden and Mechelen may have enjoyed similar representations, Ypres’ dominance as a cloth city started earlier, and lasted longer. Moreover, as we shall see, none of the other cities were so successful in very different market segments in the way Ypres had been. In its heyday in the thirteenth century, the city’s merchants and entrepreneurs exported cloth to all parts of Europe, and when active trade fell victim of Europe’s changed commercial orientation, the city’s entrepreneurs were able to adapt their industrial output to9 these new circumstances, to new customers, new fashions, new competitors. Ypres remained throughout the fourteenth century that vibrant city. Its population may have slowly declined, but this does not mean that its industry lost its sharpness. Ypres is therefore an ideal laboratory for tracing changing social organisation in this most important of medieval industries.
Who is this book for?
This is a very interesting book if you want to know more about how business and trade worked in the Middle Ages. It covers a full range of individuals and groups involved in this industry, from the owners to the workers, including some case studies. The book is both local and international, and even tells us a lot about the technical aspects of producing cloth. Social and urban historians will also want to read this book for how it explores the interactions of the people and groups within Ypres, and how the city changed over the later Middle Ages.
The author:
Peter Stabel is a Professor at the University of Antwerp, where he focuses on the Low Countries in the Later Middle Ages, in particular economic and social topics. Click here to see his Academia.edu page.
You can also read his article, written with Anke De Meyer, on “Craft Guilds as Vectors of Middle-Class Values,” while Dutch speakers can listen to him talk about setting up a company in late medieval Bruges.
You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website
You can buy this book on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
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