« La bottega e i lavoranti » : approche des conditions de travail des Ciompi

Business and Workers: the Ciompi in Florence. The world "Ciompi" brings to mind the actors in a famous "uprising" which took place in Florence in 1378. A rich literature grew up revolving around the event, initiated by its contemporaries; but the social, structural and original reasons which sparked it off remain little known. Who were the people who dared rise up in revolt in "beautiful sweet" Florence? How did they live? In this article, the author examines the working conditions of these Florentine wool manufacturing laborers. In crossing an analysis of the accounts of a big wool manufacturer with the regulation sources and treatises on the art of wool-making, certain characteristics proper to thisgroup of workers can be brought out: their form of remuneration, and the rhythm and the technical and physical conditions of their work. As unqualified, interchangeable, massified, piece-work and hourly wage laborers, carrying out the most painful and repetitive of operations, their fate depended solely on productive necessites. And, what's more, they were scorned: Ciompi!Stella Alessandro. « La bottega e i lavoranti » : approche des conditions de travail des Ciompi. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 44ᵉ année, N. 3, 1989. pp. 529-551