DOCUMENT 10.5: A Contract of Apprenticeship, 1248

DOCUMENT 10.5

A Contract of Apprenticeship, 1248

For medieval observers, the ideal craftsman’s shop was more than a place of business: it was a family, a place where apprentices and journeymen worked side by side with the master’s spouse and children under the wise and nurturing leadership of the master craftsman. In a sense, when an apprentice entered into the service of a master, he or she became that master’s child. Medieval apprenticeship contracts convey this implicit transfer of parental authority, as well as detailing the mutual obligations that bound apprentices and masters. These obligations, too, went beyond the merely financial. Parents made guarantees of their children’s good behavior; apprentices were pledged to uphold the honor of their new masters; and masters were pledged to take an active role in promoting the health and welfare of their charges. As you read this apprenticeship contract, consider what it reveals about the relationship between parents and children. What should we make of the fact that a father enters into this contract on behalf of his son?

Apprenticeship to a Money-Changer in Marseille (1248)

May 12 . . . 1248

I, John of St. Maximin, lawyer, place with you, John Cordier, money-changer, my son William Deodat, as an apprentice, so that you may teach and instruct him in the art of money-changing, for two complete and continuous years from this date. I promise by this agreement that I will take care that my son will serve his apprenticeship with you and that he will be faithful and honest in all his dealings for the whole of the said period, and that he will not depart from you nor take anything away from you. And if it should happen, which God forbid, that the said William should cause you any loss, I promise to reimburse you by this agreement, believing in your unsupported word, etc. Also I promise to give by this agreement for the expenses of the said William food, that is bread and wine and meat, fourteen heminae of good grain and fifty solidi of the money now current in Marseilles, at your request, and to provide the said William with clothing and necessaries, pledging all my goods, etc.; renouncing the benefit of all laws, etc.

To this I, the said John Cordier, receive the said William as a pupil and promise you, the said John St. Maximin, to teach your son well and faithfully the business of money-changing, etc., pledging all my goods, etc.; renouncing the benefit of all laws, etc.

Witnesses, etc.

Source: Maryanne Kowaleski, ed., Medieval Towns: A Reader (Orchard Park, N.Y.: Broadview Press, 2006), pp. 145–146.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

  1. Question

    c4kuxkrWJgHeTpb26CFILwaCFb5Io/TdjRW2Oe5LNOJZ0z5FItGYg4dOB4mbv71pkzW5lDLju53QzxFu6SOrXPK5TdJM8egBs0+QIW7Z1a01gG9htYHHl57KPJwWpYGWv7rzZoY+QW1xJSAU+TuoMQmbJ1nccBHa9m21EtLMu9BANsvkKZ1jVKcLD390gcdHA7b6phkexLxOp5voE0PDQvUfiLyA62P9BU5weGMPYULxcseJw/9TAA==
  2. Question

    RMQyStKfCIX9B1dHSkN56SFT3qj1gFdxiAY+uZLAdiNoDozZTl9dxASbSZPgG2AzmWdDr1Y3Aa+HouR9KiKG2+YWo0BjTgY+9NJjFvTfFry5iLOmOwHMiS8/hh67Ihnxxa2piD4wwvh4slvXjTa6Hrk8yphUdbr5rBXuNuli/3PmUCzo