Prestige at Work

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EAN/UPC/ISBN Code 9783639062182


Author


Weight 164 gr

Pages 108

Year of production 2009

Binding 152x220

Goldsmiths have always raised interest among the scholars, most of all because their intermediary status between those who worked and those who authored. In early modern Transylvania, the goldsmith craftsmen of Cluj/Kolozsvár gradually became members of the high elite of the town. The reasons behind this varied. After the catastrophe of Mohács (1526), when the medieval Hungarian Kingdom fell to the Turks, the role of the town changed considerably within the new born Principality of Transylvania. Within the new geo-political reality, the newly granted privileges yielded advantages that fostered the development of crafts and trade. Furthermore, the proximity to the gold and silver mines and the mint promoted even more to the rise of the goldsmiths. Thus, in a relatively short time the goldsmiths of Cluj/Kolozsvár became more than artisans. Many of them were involved in long distance or local trade, invested in estates or became high the leaders of the town. Although it is hard to delineate a craft segregation within the townscape, it can be asserted that the goldsmith houses were gathered close to the town center, and their constituency grew around the town hall and mint.