[Sca-cooks] medieval/renaissance architectural construction crews & related food references

Terry Decker t.d.decker at att.net
Mon Aug 13 06:28:04 PDT 2012


I would need to dig around for the sources, but a guild worker would be 
hired for part of a project and a portion of his wage would be bread, beer 
and specific weekly amounts of meat or fish.  These would be recorded in the 
household accounts.  The consumables would be for the worker and his family. 
The basics might be supplemented by the generosity of the employer or by 
purchase from the monetary portion of the wages.  In general, all guilds 
would have been eating roughly the same things although that could vary by 
location.

I don't recall anything about how guildsmen ate on the jobsite, but given 
the way they were paid, it suggests that they brought their lunches with 
them.  As hired men for s specific project, they would likely not be 
considered part of the household and would probably not eat the communal 
meals with the household.

Bear

> Bear wrote:
>
>> Medieval and Renaissance construction was centered around the craft
>> guilds, mason, painters, carpenters, etc.  Without knowing precisely what
>> you are after, try googling medieval construction, medieval mason guilds,
>> medieval carpenter guilds and medieval painter guilds for images.
>>
>
> Having already googled, I thought to ask here as my google fu failed.
> Perhaps I can make myself more clear. Say a building needed to be built.
> Say that it's a stone building in large part, perhaps a castle keep or a
> cathedral. There would clearly be construction workers on site at said
> building. What would they have eaten? Would the various guild groups have
> eaten something different? Would they have brought their own food or fed
> communally?




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