On a red line across Europe: butchers and rebellions in fourteenth-century Siena

Abstract

As a result of the role played in urban uprisings and conspiracies in late medieval and early modern western Europe, the butchers’ trade has been one of the most intensively studied food-related occupations. Recent research on medieval butchers has shown a renewed interest in the topic. This article begins by presenting a review and synthesis of the historiography of butchers’ revolts in late medieval cities across western Europe. It then moves on to an analysis of the specific case of Siena, based on original primary research. The aim of the article is to show how Sienese butchers rebelled more than once during the fourteenth century and to examine why it was inevitable that they failed, despite the long-standing alliances they built with part of the educated elite. Indeed, social and political tensions within the guild forced a two-way split within the guild and its elites. These findings definitively call into question the traditional view of the cohesiveness of the butchers’ guilds in medieval Europe and their supposed marginalization in medieval society, advancing understanding of fourteenth-century Siena, of its enduring popular regime and, more generally, of late medieval urban society, politics and revolts. Moreover, such a case study has the potential to enable further comparative analysis across medieval and early modern Europe.