Pilgrim Reindeer in Pisa, 1348 a free multimedia novel by Thomas A. DuBois, University of Wisconsin-Madison

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 Part III. Italy. 50. Joining the Guild [March 20, 1348]

I wrote this chapter while in Florence, and had tremendous fun tracking down the places where the various guilds used to have their seats. The shields like the one above are often all that remains to indicate the former role of a building. The guild system is something I wanted to understand better, and this chapter helped me do that. Regrettably, guilds took on new meaning to me a few short years later, when my own union was targeted for suppression.

I also enjoyed exploring the rather lowbrow history of moneychanging (banking) and the de' Medici family. Already at the time of this novel the guild had pulled itself into the upper tier of the guild system, and over time it would come to rank far above all the rest, a strange notoriety, given that it is the one guild that didn't/doesn't produce anything to speak of, apart from profits for itself. Even the junk sellers guild had a more notable product... Not to mention really useful guilds like the merchants in wool, or the woodworkers...