Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 29/2. (2009)

Cultură materială

Etnografie

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of the town confirmed the statute of the guild, which had eighteen articles, following the model of other statutes from the 7 + 2 Saxon Seats.4 In 1513, the saddlers and belt-makers from Targu-Mure§ [Neumarkt/Marosvásárhely] are mentioned; one of the representatives of the latter became mayor of the town in 1557.5 In 1520, the saddlers in Bistrita were also awarded the privilege to obtain raw materials and sell their products.6 Beginning with 1523, the representatives of saddlers and belt-makers started to participate in the leadership of the town.7

In 1553, the Moldavian Prince Alexandru Lapu§neanu ordered four thousand girdles from Bra§ov, which demonstrates that belt-makers had a large production.8 Curriers often intruded into their domain of activity, which resulted in numerous trials, settled by the judicial instances of the Universitas Saxorum.9

In order to protect themselves from non-guild competition or from related guilds, saddlers and belt-makers organized themselves in independent guilds in the larger towns. Thus, one is able to find the saddlers organized as an independent guild in Sibiu in 1502, in Sighi§oara in 1510, in Cluj on November 21, 152110 11, and in Tärgu-Mure§ in 1615.11

Documentary sources

There is little information on the internal organization of these guilds. The most important documents pertaining to this aspect are the statutes, which also constitute the most credible source of information on their activity.

The statute of the guild from Sibiu from 1762 and the statutes of journeymen from the same town from 1764 provide an accurate image concerning the life and organization of saddler journeymen.

4 G. Nussbächer, Documente privind me§te§ugurile din Sighi$oara. Catalog de documente 1376-1598, Brasov, 1998, p. 26-27, doc. no. 34.

5 Bónis Johanna, Colectia läzilor de breaslä a Miizeului de Istorie din Tärgu-Мищ, in Marisia, vol. XXVII, Tärgu-Mure§, 2003, p. 97, fn. 28.

6 O. Dahinten, Geschichte der Stadt Bistritz in Siebenbürgen, Köln, Wien, 1988, p. 450.

7 Ibid.

* §t. Pascu, p. 138.

9 R. Rosier, Beitrag zur Geschichte des Zunftwesens. Alteres Zunftwesen in Hermannstadt bis zum Jahre 1526, in Archiv des Vereins für siebenbürgische Landeskunde, N.F. Bd. 38, Hermannstadt, 1912, p. 530.

10 S. Goldenberg, Clujul in secolul al XVl-lea, pp. 134-135.

11 Bónis Johanna, p. 97, fn. 28; idem, A marásvásarhelyi céhek tárgyi emlékei, in A marosvásárhely történetéből, Tárgu-Mure§, 1999, pp. 129-131.