Wealth and Status in the Middle Ages
in the southern Low Countries—z
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CONTENT
PREFACE | Fernand Huts
Parti
‘WEALTH AND PRosPERITY
Sill but trong: looking for the roots of sustainable economic success in medieval Flanders | Tim Svensand Peter Stat.
ParT2
INDIVIDUALITY AND DISTINCTION
The many faces of the medieval burgher in the Southern Netherlands | Jan Dumolyn
Merchants and money changers [Jeroen Puttevils
Artisans and craft guilds in the medieval city | Jelle Haemers
Textile entrepreneurs and textile workers in che medieval city| Jeroen Deploige and Peter Stabel
‘Women in the medieval society | Andrea Bardyn
Clerics and monasties | Brigitte Mejns
The construction of power: strategies of the prince and the nobility | Mario Damen and Dries Tys
The status and sense ofidentity of farmers and villagers | Kristof Dombrecht and Eline Vanonacker
Parr3
PRESTIGE AND INGENUITY
Haute couture and préti-porter. ‘The art market in the Late Middle Ages | Katbarina Van Cateren
‘And then there was light: on the artist in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and on the emergence of genius
Elisabeth Bracke
EpiLocur
Golden Times? | Veronique Lambert
BrsuioGRaPHy
ABOUT THE AUTHORShhe Southern Netherlands in medieval times wasa region of towns
‘and city dwellers, as has already become more than apparent from the preced-
ing chapters in this book. That urban landscape was characterized by economic
activity, technological innovation, and major cultural achievements, as well as
social polarization and finely honed political oppositions. Burghership played a
central role in medieval socicty in these regions. But what does the word ‘burgher
‘mean exactly? Can we spealcin terms of the burghers, as fthey represented a
homogeneous group? Are we discussing a specific social class, such as the one we
immediately think of when referring to today’s ordinary middle-class citizens,
orto choosea more sensicive term-the bourgeoisie’? Was a burgher nothing
more than a resident ofthe city, ‘townsman’, or was a specific social identicy
involved? Ts that possibly how city dwellers defined their selFimage by aligning,
swith a specific group?
&@ Inorderto find sensible answers to these questions, we must frst explore
the many historical connotations associated with the concepts of burgher, city