History 2403E Lecture 2: Lecture #2 - Life in an early modern city:village
2 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
September 19th, 2017
Life in an early modern city
City streets
- No benefit of city planning
- Make a return to Western Europe in 11th C.
o look for water and high ground to build compound
o building wherever
- incredibly dark
- only paid property taxes on what took up ground space
o homes quite narrow and quite tall
- extremely filthy: no structured/ organized plan for waste removal
- city walls incredibly cramped and very expensive
- city streets very narrow
- dangerous
o no modern police force
o mid17thC. Paris first city with a police force
- filled with people all throughout the day
o spent most of their time despite how unpleasant they were
- streets the primary source and site of economic activity
- late 17thC. (80s&90s), stores began to have glass fronts
- main location for social activity
o visit and socialize in these streets
- homes dark and cold, no heating or plumbing
o people move out into the streets to interact throughout the day
o not comfortable
- people:
o fiery preachers at street corners calling out for repentance and preaching the word
of God,
o peddlers move through the city selling goods,
o town criers
o poor- levels of poverty are dramatically increasing, more and more people falling
into abject poverty
▪ only one source of charity, the church
▪ widows, orphans, lepers on every street corner
o animals
▪ one of the key sources of food and skins and leather
▪ herds of cows, sheep herded through the streets
• skinned and killed for food
• quarter of the city dedicated to those who’s craft are looked down
upon
▪ nobles rode horses
▪ animal garbage brigades which came out at night
- no understanding of disease transmission, bacteria, germs or how illness are passed
o no sensible link between health and hygiene
o cleanliness and health interrelated
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- garbage
o smell of tons of waste
o all dumping out into the streets
- social structures (Guilds)
o organized socially
o professional much more holistic
o craftsmen created in order to regulate a specific aspect of their craft or trade
▪ limited the number of people able to open a craft in order to meet their
needs
o quality control: certain weight/amount, size, degree of ingredients, how much you
could sell that for between a specific price
o hierarchy within each guild itself
▪ had to reach the rank of master craftsmen
▪ had to pass 2 other ones
• 1. apprentice age 12-14
o learn the basics
• 2. become a journeyman
o someone who mastered the basics
o expected to move around learning from different craftsman
in order to learn new tasks
• 3. Master craftsman
o social support
▪ church only source of charity
o political persuasion
o sounds and noises
▪ bells of the city
• ringing out the hours
• marks the beginning of the day and end of the day
o break of dawn
o series of bells to indicate the coming of night
o final bell indicated it was now illegal to be out on the city
streets at this points
▪ only people out are prostitutes and thieves
▪ scared of fire and plague
• everything made out of wood
• only things not is city hall and main
cathedral church which is made out of stone
• no way to put a fire out once it starts
• telling jokes of arson is a capital crime
▪ every fire must be put out
• Capital crime to leave a fire unattended
• tell people of death, celebration and mourning
▪ major way for the city to communicate with the city itself
o time
▪ no sense of how old they are or of actual time
▪ in Lyon, workday ended when you couldn’t tell who is who at 50paces
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
▪ church committed to keeping time as close to normal
- plague
o quarantine
- 1st floor where you sell the goods
- 2nd cook, store the good and if you are wealthy somewhere to sit and socialize
- as societies became more urban, families become urban
o cannot have a big family because you afford it
- master craftsmen
o apprentice and journeymen considered to be family
o legally responsible for any crime done by the wife, kids or anything that their
workers do
- no internal heating or plumbing
o small charcoal brazier
o earliest homes built out over the window
o no fundamental notion of water and disease
- the marketplaces
o specialized for meat, bread, books, clothing
o the hangman’s noose, criminals to be executed
- behind city hall has was the church
o only buildings in the city made of stone
o the closer you lived to the city centre, the more important you were
o things marginally cleaner
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Make a return to western europe in 11th c. look for water and high ground to build compound: building wherever incredibly dark. Only paid property taxes on what took up ground space: homes quite narrow and quite tall extremely filthy: no structured/ organized plan for waste removal city walls incredibly cramped and very expensive city streets very narrow. Dangerous: no modern police force, mid17thc. Main location for social activity: visit and socialize in these streets. Homes dark and cold, no heating or plumbing: people move out into the streets to interact throughout the day, not comfortable. No understanding of disease transmission, bacteria, germs or how illness are passed: no sensible link between health and hygiene, cleanliness and health interrelated. 1st floor where you sell the goods. 2nd cook, store the good and if you are wealthy somewhere to sit and socialize as societies became more urban, families become urban: cannot have a big family because you afford it.
