Define a guild, and discuss the importance of the guilds in late-medieval Siena and Florence

Question

Please provide the best answer for the statement.

Answer 1

1. Guilds are associations of people with like-minded, often occupation-based interests, which controlled the arts and trades in late-medieval Siena and Florence.
2. Florence established itself, in 1115, as a free commune (a collective of people gathered together for the common good), the government of which was controlled by arti, or guilds. By the end of the twelfth century, there were 7 major guilds and 14 minor ones. The most prestigious was the Lawyers’ Guild, followed closely by the Wool Guild, the Silk Guild, and the Cloth Merchants’ Guild . Also among the major guilds were the bankers, the doctors, and other merchant classes. Butchers, bakers, carpenters, and masons composed the bulk of the minor guilds. The merchants controlled the government. They were known as the Popolo Grasso (literally, “the fat people”), as opposed to Popolo Minuto, the ordinary workers, who constituted probably 75 percent of the population and had no voice in government. Only guild members could serve in the government. Their names were written down, the writing was placed in leather bags (borse) in the Church of Santa Croce, and nine names were drawn every two months in a public ceremony. (The period of service was short to reduce the chance of corruption.)
3. As in Florence, the guilds became an increasingly powerful force in the Siena commune. Leading the way was the Merchants’ Guild. By 1280, its members controlled city government, excluding the nobility and declaring that only “good popular merchants” should be eligible to serve on the city council. Other guilds resented the merchants’ control over the city’s government, and in 1355, the people forced their resignation. From then on, anyone belonging to a guild was technically eligible to serve on the council, except merchants and nobles. However, control soon fell to the next great guilds below the merchants, the shopkeepers and notaries. By 1368, vying factions caused the disintegration of the government.