Walls of Cloth: Tentergrounds and Cloth Production in Bruges, c. 1200–1600

Abstract

The example of the tentergrounds in late medieval Bruges shows how landowners—both public and private—profited from unfavourable geo-morphological conditions to create vast industrial spaces used for the drying, stretching, and shearing of woollen cloths. A combination of evidence from historical and toponymical records gives us a unique insight into the changing scale and impact of this industry on the medieval urban landscape. This evidence also reveals the ways in which these industrial spaces were controlled, appropriated, (re)organised and put to different usages by various actors, social groups, and institutions, depending on commercial changes and economic interests.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Jan Dumolyn, Marc Boone, Ward Leloup and Heidi Deneweth, as well as the editors and reviewers for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Notes

1 No. 1336, Charters, Sint-Janshospitaal, City Archives (former OCMW Archives), Bruges. This trial was first briefly touched upon by M. Ryckaert, ‘Binnenstedelijk onroerend bezit van het Sint-Janshospitaal te Brugge tijdens het Ancien Régime’, in Sint-Janshospitaal Brugge 1188/1976: Tentoonstelling georganiseerd door de Commissie van Openbare Onderstand van Brugge, 5 juni–31 augustus 1976 (Bruges: C.O.O., 1976), pp. 90–111.

2 ‘… daermede te doene huere gheliefte zonder pacht of huere daeran thebbene ghelijc van hueren propren goede …’. No. 1336, Charters.

3 On the terminology, see G. De Poerck, La draperie médiévale en Flandre et en Artois: Technique et terminologie, vol. 2, Glossaire français, Rijksuniversiteit te Gent, werken uitgegeven door de Faculteit van de Wijsbegeerte en Letteren 110 (Bruges: De Tempel, 1951), pp. 114–15; De Poerck, La draperie médiévale, vol. 3, Glossaire flamand (1951), pp. 113, 116.

4 No. 234/3, Droogscheerders, 310, Charters ambachten, City Archives, Bruges. See also Ryckaert, ‘Binnenstedelijk onroerend bezit’, p. 94.

5 On these initiatives, see J. Vermaut, ‘De textielnijverheid in Brugge en op het platteland in westelijk Vlaanderen voor 1800. Konjunktuurverloop, organisatie en sociale verhoudingen’ (PhD diss., Ghent University, 1973), pp. 72–88.

6 Fol. 74v (fol. LXXIv), 1490–1499, Hallegeboden, City Archives, Bruges.

7 See e.g. the trial of the shearer Lampsin Dierkin (dated 1508) who had been banished for counterfeiting cloth seals and trademarks (No. 8749, Raad van Vlaanderen, State Archives, Ghent).

8 H. Van Werveke, ‘Introduction historique’, in La draperie médiévale en Flandre et en Artois: Technique et terminologie, by G. De Poerck, vol. 1, 3 vols (Bruges: De Tempel, 1951), p. 10.

9 A. Verhulst, The Rise of Cities in North-West Europa, Themes in International Urban History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); F. Vercauteren, ‘Un exemple de peuplement urbain au XIIe siècle. Le cas d’Arras’, in Etudes d’histoire médiévale: Recueil d’articles du Professeur Vercauteren publiés par le Crédit Communal de Belgique, Collection Histoire Pro Civitate, série in 8° 53 (Brussels: Crédit communal de Belgique, 1978), pp. 365–77; W. Prevenier, ‘Bevolkingscijfers en professionele strukturen der bevolking van Gent en Brugge in de 14e eeuw’, in Album aangeboden aan Charles Verlinden ter gelegenheid van zijn dertig jaar professoraat (Ghent: Universa, 1975), pp. 269–303.

10 See e.g. R. Verbruggen, Geweld in Vlaanderen: Macht en onderdrukking in de Vlaamse steden tijdens de veertiende eeuw, Vlaamse Historische Studies 12 (Bruges: Marc Van de Wiele, 2005); M. Boone and H. Brand, ‘Vollersoproeren en collectieve actie in Gent en Leiden in de 14de en 15de eeuw’, Tijdschrift voor sociale geschiedenis, 19 (1993), pp. 168–92; J. Dumolyn, ‘Guild Politics and Political Guilds in Fourteenth-Century Flanders’, in The Voices of the People in Late Medieval Europe: Communication and Popular Politics, Studies in European Urban History 33 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014), pp. 15–48.

11 M. Speecke, L. Bervoets and J. Dumolyn, ‘Toponymie en urbanisatie in de middeleeuwse Vlaamse textielsteden (ca. 1150–1300)’, Handelingen van de koninklijke commissie voor toponymie en dialectologie, 90 (2019), pp. 451–74.

12 The literature on the cloth industry in the southern Low Countries is vast. An overview with references to the most important publications can be found in H. Van Der Wee and E. Aerts, ‘The History of the Textile Industry in the Low Countries: List of Publications 1970–1977’, Textile History, 9, no. 1 (1978), pp. 176–83; H. Van Der Wee and E. Aerts, ‘The History of the Textile Industry in the Low Countries: Second List of Publications 1970–1980’, Textile History, 12, no. 1 (1981), pp. 129–40; H. Van Der Wee and E. Aerts, ‘The History of The Textile Industry in the Low Countries: Third List of Publications 1975–1982’, Textile History, 14, no. 2 (1983), pp. 227–32; J. H. A. Munro, ‘Medieval Woollens: Textiles, Textile Technology and Industrial Organisation, c. 800–1500’, in The Cambridge History of Western Textiles, ed. D. Jenkins, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 181–227; J. H. A. Munro, ‘Medieval Woollens: The Western European Woollen Industries and Their Struggles for International Markets, c. 1000–1500’, in The Cambridge History of Western Textiles, ed. D. Jenkins, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 228–324.

13 According to Henri Pirenne, this decline was largely due to the economic and political success of the ‘conservative’ craft guilds that opposed innovation and were unable to give suitable answers to changes in demand and supply (H. Pirenne, ‘Une crise industrielle au XVIème siècle: La draperie urbaine et la “nouvelle draperie” en Flandre’, Bulletin de l’académie royale de Belgique (1905), pp. 489–521; H. Pirenne, ‘Les périodes de l’histoire sociale du capitalisme’, Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres et des Sciences Morales et Politiques (Belgique) (1914), pp. 258–99). From the 1980s, however, scholars such as Marc Boone and Simonne Abraham-Thisse have nuanced this traditional view by arguing that, despite the massive loss of employment, the urban textile industry proved more resilient than previously imagined, while others used the notion of the product life cycle, which focuses on changes in demand as an explanation for industrial dynamics in a longue durée perspective, or put forward transaction costs and monetary mechanisms to explain changes in prices, wage setting and trade. See M. Boone, ‘L’industrie textile à Gand au Bas Moyen Âge ou les resurrections successives d’une activité réputée moribonde’, in La draperie ancienne des Pays-Bas: débouchés et stratégies de survie (14e–16e siècles): Actes du colloque tenu à Gand le 28 avril 1992, ed. M. Boone and W. Prevenier, Studies in Urban Social, Economic and Political History of the Medieval and Modern Low Countries 1 (Leuven: Garant, 1993), pp. 15–61; S. Abraham-Thisse, ‘Le commerce des draps de Flandre en Europe du Nord: faut-il encore parler du déclin de la draperie flamande au Bas Moyen Âge?’, in La draperie ancienne des Pays-Bas, pp. 167–206; J. Vermaut, ‘Structural Transformation in a Textile Centre: Bruges from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century’, in The Rise and Decline of Urban Industries in Italy and in the Low Countries (Late Middle Ages–Early Modern Times), ed. H. Van der Wee (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1988), pp. 187–206; H. Van der Wee, ‘Industrial Dynamics and the Process of Urbanization and De-Urbanization in the Low Countries from the Late Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century. A Synthesis’, in Van der Wee, The Rise and Decline of Urban Industries, pp. 307–81. Compare with J. H. A. Munro, ‘Industrial Transformations in the North-West European Textile Trades, c.1290–c.1340: Economic Progress or Economic Crisis?’, in Before the Black Death, ed. B. Campbell (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1991), pp. 110–48; J. H. A. Munro, ‘Three Centuries of Luxury Textile Consumption in the Low Countries and England, 1330–1570: Trends and Comparisons of Real Values of Woollen Broadcloths (Then and Now)’, in The Medieval Broadcloth: Changing Trends in Fashions, Manufacturing, and Consumption, ed. K. V. Pedersen and M.-L. Nosch (Havertown: Oxbow Books, 2009), pp. 1–73, and other works by this author.

14 P. Stabel, ‘Labour Time, Guild Time? Working Hours in the Cloth Industry of Medieval Flanders and Artois (Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries)’, TSEG: The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, 4, no. 11 (2014), pp. 27–53; S. Hutton, ‘Organizing Specialized Production: Gender in the Medieval Flemish Wool Cloth Industry (c. 1250–1384)’, Urban History, 45, no. 3 (2018), pp. 382–403; J. Dumolyn, W. Ryckbosch and M. Speecke, ‘Did Inequality Produce Medieval Revolt? The Material Position and Political Agency of Textile Workers during the Flemish Revolt of 1379–85’, Social History, 46, no. 4 (2021), pp. 372–405; J. Deploige and P. Stabel, ‘Textielondernemers en textielarbeiders in de middeleeuwse stad’, in Gouden tijden: Rijkdom en status in de middeleeuwen, ed. V. Lambert and P. Stabel (Tielt: Lannoo, 2016), pp. 240–81; B. Lambert and K. A. Wilson, eds, Europe’s Rich Fabric: The Consumption, Commercialisation, and Production of Luxury Textiles in Italy, the Low Countries and Neighbouring Territories (Fourteenth-Sixteenth Centuries) (Farnham: Ashgate, 2016).

15 An exception to this is F. Franceschi, ‘A Workshop Larger than a City: The Florentine Textile Manufacture’, in Textiles and Wealth in 14th Century Florence: Wool, Silk, Painting, ed. Cecilie Hillberg (Firenze: Giunti editore, 2017), pp. 64–73.

16 T. M. Safley and L. N. Rosenband, ‘Introduction’, in Labor Before the Industrial Revolution: Work, Technology and their Ecologies in an Age of Early Capitalism, ed. T. M. Safley (Abingdon: Routledge, 2019), pp. 1–9. A similar ‘ecological’ approach to work was used by E. Crouzet-Pavan in her study of medieval Venice (E. Crouzet-Pavan, Le Moyen Âge de Venise: des eaux salées au miracle de pierres (Paris: Albin Michel, 2015)).

17 Among the many studies on medieval urban space in the (southern) Low Countries inspired by the ‘spatial turn’ in historiography, see e.g. M. Boone and M. C. Howell, eds, The Power of Space in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe: The Cities of Italy, Northern France and the Low Countries, Studies in European Urban History (1100–1800) 30 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013); C. Billen and C. Deligne, ‘Urban Space: Infrastructure, Technology and Power’, in City and Society in the Low Countries, 1100–1600, ed. B. Blondé, M. Boone and A. Van Bruaene (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), pp. 162–91.

18 D. Menjot and P. Clark, eds, Subaltern City? Alternative and Peripheral Urban Spaces in the Pre-Modern Period (13th–18th Centuries), Studies in European Urban History (1100–1800) 46 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2019); B. Geremek, Les marginaux Parisiens aux XIVe et XVe siècles, Collection L’Histoire vivante (Paris: Flammarion, 1976); Karl Czok, ‘Vorstädte: zu ihrer Entstehung, Wirtschaft und Sozialentwicklung in der älteren deutschen Stadtgeschichte’, Sitzungsberichte der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig: Philologisch-historische Klasse, 121, no. 1 (1979), pp. 3–28.

19 For a general overview of weaving techniques, see D. Cardon, La draperie au Moyen Âge: Essor d’une grande industrie européenne (Paris : CNRS, 1999).

20 De Poerck, La draperie médiévale, vol. 1, pp. 118–24; Munro, ‘Medieval Woollens’, p. 209; F. Sorber, ‘The Making of Cloth: State of the Art Technology in the Middle Ages’, in Ypres and the Medieval Cloth Industry in Flanders: Archaeological and Historical Contributions, ed. M. De Wilde, A. Ervynck and A. Wielemans (Zellik: Instituut voor het archeologisch patrimonium, 1998), pp. 21–29.

21 G. Espinas and H. Pirenne, eds, Recueil de documents relatifs à l’histoire de l’industrie drapière en Flandre, vol. 1, 1 (Brussels: Kiessling et Imbreghts, 1906), p. 501; G. Espinas and H. Pirenne, eds, Recueil de documents relatifs à l’histoire de l’industrie drapière en Flandre, vol. 3, 1 (Brussels: Kiessling et Imbreghts, 1920), pp. 495, 518.

22 M. Boone, ‘Nieuwe teksten over de Gentse draperie: Wolaanvoer, productiewijze en controlepraktijken (ca. 1456–1468)’, Handelingen van de Koninklijke Commissie voor Geschiedenis, 154, nos 1–2 (1988), p. 29, art. LIII; Espinas and Pirenne, eds, Recueil de documents, vol. 3, 1, pp. 507, 511, 569. In Bruges, the tenter frames were brandmarked with the depiction of a lion in reference to the city’s coat of arms (fol. 111r, 1401/2, 216). Stadsrekeningen, City Archives, Bruges: ‘Item den 25sten dach in october gheghegen Clais Janszuene, den smet, van tween yseren daer in dat liebaerde ghesneden staen, de welke ghedeliverert waren Clais Baven, maenre van den ramen, omme de ramen mede te teekenene ende te metene …’.

23 De Poerck, La draperie médiévale, vol. 1, pp. 113–19. Note that in the thirteenth-century drapery regulations the ‘raemsceerres’ are distinct from the ‘witsceerres’, who had the monopoly on the shearing of white says.

24 Nominal wages for a master craftsman in the building industry rose from 1.7–2s parisis per day around 1300 to 11s parisis in the fifteenth century, see J. De Smet, ‘Les keures inédites du plus ancien livre de keures d’Ypres’, Bulletin de la commission royale d’histoire, 94 (1930), p. 469 and J. H. A. Munro, ‘Builders’ Wages in Southern England and the Southern Low Countries, 1346–1500: A Comparative Study of Trends in and Levels of Real Incomes’, in L’Edilizia prima della Rivoluzione industriale secc. XIII–XVIII: Atti della Trentaseiesima Settimana di Studi, 26–30 aprile 2004, ed. S. Cavaciocchi, Atti delle Settimane di Studi e altri Convegni 36 (Firenze: Le Monnier, 2005), p. 1053, table 3.

25 216. Stadsrekeningen, City Archives, Bruges, partly edited in J. De Smet, A. Vandewalle and C. Wyffels, eds, De rekeningen van de stad Brugge, 1280–1319, Koninklijke Academie van België, Koninklijke Commissie voor Geschiedenis. Verzameling van onuitgegeven Belgische kronieken en van onuitgegeven documenten betreffende de geschiedenis van België, 62 (Brussels: Paleis der Academieën, 1965–1997).

26 223. Handboeken renten dated 1391 and 1395, City Archives, Bruges; 141. Stadseigendommen dated 1403/4, City Archives, Bruges.

27 G30–G62, G113, G148, G156, G162, G176, G180, Rekeningen, Sint-Janshospitaal, City Archives (former OCMW Archives), Bruges. If the receipts were not mentioned separately, they were subsumed under the wider category of ‘poortrenten’, which included all kinds of rental income from the city of Bruges.

28 B10–B12, B24, B32, B38 and B82, Rentenboeken, Sint-Janshospitaal, City Archives (former OCMW Archives), Bruges. See also No. 324/4, Droogscheerders.

29 Fol. 14r, B10, Rentenboeken.

30 Fol. 19r, B11, Rentenboeken.

31 Boone, ‘Nieuwe teksten over de Gentse draperie’, p. 29, art. LIII; Espinas and Pirenne, Recueil de documents , vol. 3, p. 96, art. 24; p. 507, art. 14; p. 584, art. 1.

32 De Poerck, La draperie médiévale, vol. 1, p. 121.

33 C. Wyffels and J. De Smet, eds, De rekeningen van de stad Brugge, 1280-1319, Koninklijke Academie van België, Koninklijke Commissie voor Geschiedenis, Verzameling van onuitgegeven Belgische kronieken en van onuitgegeven documenten betreffende de geschiedenis van België, 62 (Brussels: Paleis der Academieën, 1965), vol. 1, 1, p. 114.

34 See e.g. C. Wyffels and A. Vandewalle, eds, De rekeningen van de stad Brugge, 1280-1319, Koninklijke Academie van België, Koninklijke Commissie voor Geschiedenis, Verzameling van onuitgegeven Belgische kronieken en van onuitgegeven documenten betreffende de geschiedenis van België, 62 (Brussels: Paleis der Academieën, 1995), vol. 2, 1, p. 1257.

35 Fol. 192r, no. 689, Aanwinsten, State Archives, Bruges: ‘Onze land es groet daer die ramen staen in die marsch 6,5 gemeten ende 13 roeden ende leght an die west side ende ant zud hende’.

36 W. Baes, A. De Blieck and J. Willems, Van Rame tot Coupure: Geschiedenis van een Brugse wijk (Bruges: Uitgeverij De Garve, 1997), p. 25; W. Simons, Bedelordekloosters in het Graafschap Vlaanderen. Chronologie en topografie van de bedelordenverspreiding voor 1350 (Bruges: Stichting Jan Cobbaut – Sint-Pietersabdij Steenbrugge, 1987), p. 48 n. 9.

37 See e.g. the Raamstraat leading towards Cattevoorde, as well as the Korte and Lange Raamstraat alongside ten Freren ackere (G. Dumon, De oude straatnamen van Brugge: een handleiding (Bruges: Levend archief, 1996), pp. 19, 21, 28). Until fairly recently, the neighbourhood around the tentergrounds of ten Hoye was known as ‘de Rame’ (Baes, De Blieck and Willems, Van Rame tot Coupure). The term ‘cartographic lexicon’ is borrowed from D. Lord Smail, Imaginary Cartographies: Possession and Identity in Late Medieval Marseille (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000).

38 Espinas and Pirenne, Recueil de documents, vol. 1, 1, p. 368, art. 35. Sources from Saint-Omer and Lille mention the stretching of cloth ‘dedans’ or ‘a estuve’, see De Poerck, La draperie médiévale, vol. 1, pp. 120–21. The city ordinances of Tournai (1349–1351) equally distinguish between tentering ‘au jour’ and ‘en l’estuve’, the latter being more costly, see C. Billen and M. Boone, eds, Bans et édits pour la ville de Tournai en temps de peste (1349–1351): Les transcriptions retrouvées de Frédéric Hennebert (Brussels: Koninklijke commissie voor Geschiedenis, 2021), p. 74, no. 79.

39 For similar reasons of quality control the possession of private tenters in London was prohibited in 1482 under a heavy penalty, and all those existing were ordered to be destroyed except ten—five at the Fullers’ Hall and five at Leadenhall, see L. F. Salzman, English Industries of the Middle Ages, Being an Introduction to the Industrial History of Mediaeval England (London: Constable, 1913), p. 224.

40 De Smet, ‘Les keures’, p. 442, art. 1; p. 445, art. 21.

41 M. J. F. Willems, ed., Collection des keuren ou statuts de tous les métiers de Bruges, Recueil de chroniques, chartes et autres documents concernant l’histoire et les antiquités de la Flandre Occidentale, Troisième série, Documents isolés, chartes et keuren (Ghent: Société d’Emulation de Bruges, 1842), p. 74.

42 Ryckaert, ‘Binnenstedelijk onroerend bezit’, p. 93.

43 On the expansion of the urban territory, see J. De Smet, ‘De evolutie van het Brugse stadsgebied’, Handelingen Genootschap ‘Société d’Emulation’ Brugge, 100 (1963), pp. 90–99.

44 Simons, Bedelordekloosters, pp. 45–53.

45 De Smet, ‘De evolutie van het Brugse stadsgebied’, pp. 94–95.

46 Wyffels and De Smet, De rekeningen, vol. 1, 1, p. 114: ‘Item tunc domino Balduino de Arsebrouc pro terra empta ab ipso, ubi rame site sunt prope ingenium, 29 lib. 12 d.’. On the unification-strategy of the patrician class, see J. Dumolyn, ‘Economic Development, Social Space and Political Power in Bruges, c. 1127–1302’, in Contact and Exchange in Later Medieval Europe: Essays in Honour of Malcolm Vale, ed. H. Skoda, P. Lantschner and R. L. J. Shaw (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2012), pp. 51–53.

47 Oorkonde ad datum 4 januari 1270, Fonds Begijnhof, Episcopal Archives, Bruges: ‘… non poterit dicta villa in predicta terra aliqua edificia facere nec licheas [<liches, Fr. = tenter frames] ponere, neque ad pasturam animalium suorum convertere nec alicui pro quibuscumque usibus locare nec ad quoscumque usus alios deputare, nisi quod pro libertate dicti aqueductus in perpetuum vacua teneatur et etiam conservetur. Simili modo beghine ipsius beghinagii in predictam terra animalia sua non possunt pascere nec ad usus suos aliquos de cetero applicare …’.

48 Compare with Mechelen, where the tentering fields were located on poor, sandy soils covered with heath; see F. Kinnaer and L. Troubleyn, ‘Heide, wol en linnen: Mesolithische jagers-verzamelaars en 650 jaar textielnijverheid op de Stompaertshoek te Mechelen’, basisrapportage (Mechelen: Stad Mechelen – dienst Archeologie, 2014).

49 ‘meriska, mariska’, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek (Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, 2018), https://gtb.ivdnt.org/search/# (accessed 12 April 2021; ‘mersc, mersch’, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek (Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, 2018), https://gtb.ivdnt.org/search/# (accessed 12 April 2021). See also M. Devos and H. Ryckeboer, ‘Eléments néerlandais/flamands se rapportant au paysage dans la toponymie du Nord – Pas-de-Calais’, in Actes du colloque: 4ème Journee de la Coordination Universitaite pour l’Etude du Flamand (Anthroponymie et toponymie flamandes, Université Catholique de Lille, 2006), pp. 30–31.

50 ‘ōi’, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek (Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, 2018), https://gtb.ivdnt.org/search/# (accessed 12 April 2021). See also M. Gysseling, ‘Speurtocht in het vroege verleden van Gent en omgeving’, Naamkunde, 12 (1980), p. 186.

51 M. Devos, ‘Betekenis en motivering van enkele diernamen in de toponymie’, Naamkunde 34, no. 2 (2002), pp. 217–22; ‘vortIII’, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek (Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, 2018), https://gtb.ivdnt.org/search/ (accessed 12 April 2021).

52 Simons, Bedelordekloosters, pp. 45–53.

53 J. De Smet, ‘De oude hydrografie van de stad Brugge’, Handelingen van het Genootschap voor Geschiedenis te Brugge, 86 (1949), pp. 14–15.

54 Wyffels and Vandewalle, De rekeningen, vol. 2, 1, pp. 1634–35.

55 J. De Smet, ‘De oude hydrografie’, pp. 13, 18. The city government regularly spent large sums to have these open sewers cleaned, see e.g. fol. 87r, 1336–1337, 216, Stadsrekeningen: ‘Van den waterganghe ten Hoye te rumene …’; fol. 60v, 1396–1397, 216, Stadsrekeningen: ‘Doe gewrocht bi Pieter f. Jans den delvere voor de Smedepoorte ende in de Gansstrate in tVule Reykin [near ten Hoye] met 16 personen onder delvers ende uutdraghers van zesse daghen …’.

56 I. Devos, Allemaal beestjes: Mortaliteit en morbiditeit in Vlaanderen, 18de–20ste eeuw (Ghent: Academia Press, 2006), pp. 157–96.

57 Espinas and Pirenne, Recueil de documents, vol. 1, p. 504, art. 12.

58 Ibid., p. 468, art. 18; p. 471, art. 38.

59 Vermaut, ‘De textielnijverheid in Brugge’, pp. 316–17.

60 Espinas and Pirenne, Recueil de documents, vol. 1, pp. 97–88, art. 77, 84 etc.

61 Ibid., p. 498, art. 265.

62 Vermaut, ‘De textielnijverheid in Brugge’, pp. 319–20.

63 Ibid., pp. 337–53.

64 Ibid., p. 322.

65 Espinas and Pirenne, Recueil de documents, vol. 1, p. 479, art. 35; p. 497, art. 258; pp. 499–500, arts 279–85; p. 543, art. 11.

66 Ibid., p. 542, art. 2–3.

67 Willems, Collection, p. 73.

68 L. Gilliodts-van Severen, Inventaire des chartes, vol. Introduction, Inventaire des archives de la ville de Bruges 1 (Bruges: Edw. Gailliard, 1878), pp. 350, 450 n. 4. See also fol. 92r, 1362/3, 216, Stadsrekeningen: ‘Item ghegheven den deken ende den vinders van den sceerres bi beveilne van buerghmeesters, in hoofsceden van enen tune ghemaect ten Hoye voor de ramen XX ryders, somma XXVII lb.’.

69 Espinas and Pirenne, Recueil de documents, vol. 1, p. 546, art. 42. Similar ordinances were also issued in Ghent, see N. De Pauw, De voorgeboden der stad Gent in de XIVe eeuw (1337–1382), vol. 4e reeks 5, Maatschappij der Vlaemsche Bibliophilen (Ghent, 1885), p. 79.

70 ‘Raemhond’ is mentioned in fourteenth-century Bruges sources as the name of a tavern in the Vlamingstraat (see e.g. nos 1010 and 1014, Rolrekeningen, Rekenkamer, State Archives, Brussels). In Ypres, the ‘chiens de liches’ were the only dogs allowed in the city, except also pet dogs, hunting dogs and butchers’ dogs, see De Smet, ‘Les keures’, p. 453, art. 76.

71 No. 324/4, Droogscheerders.

72 Ibid.

73 On the creation of trust networks among guild brothers and sisters, see G. Rosser, ‘Going to the Fraternity Feast: Commensality and Social Relations in Late Medieval England’, Journal of British Studies, 33, no. 4 (1994), pp. 430–46; G. Rosser, The Art of Solidarity in the Middle Ages: Guilds in England 1250–1550 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). For a critique on the notion of ‘guild brotherhood’, see W. Saelens, ‘Guild Brotherhood, Guild Capital? Social Network Strategies of Master Weavers and Drapers in Fourteenth-Century Ghent’, TSEG. The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, 16, no. 1 (2019), pp. 5–30.

74 Fols 83v and 92v, 1397–1421, 114, Wetsvernieuwingen, City Archives, Bruges; fols 121v, 128v, 135v, 149v, 1422–1443, 114, Wetsvernieuwingen, City Archives, Bruges.

75 On the social and political disparities within the textile guilds, see Vermaut, ‘De textielnijverheid in Brugge’, pp. 434–37.

76 Hutton, ‘Organizing Specialized Production’; M. C. Howell, Women, Production, and Patriarchy in Late Medieval Cities (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009).

77 No. 324/4, Droogscheerders.

78 Willems, Collection, pp. 67, 69.

79 No. 324/4, Droogscheerders: ‘Voort, zo zullen zij ghehouden zijn den raemscheerers vrauwen haerlieder lijnwet te laten reckene binnen den voorseiden ackere ende rame daert hemlieden gheheven zal zonder haerlieder cost naer der ouder costumen.’

80 Espinas and Pirenne, Recueil de documents, vol. 1, pp. 528, 550.

81 P. Chorley, ‘The Cloth Exports of Flanders and Northern France during the Thirteenth Century: A Luxury Trade?’, Economic History Review, 40, no. 3 (1987), pp. 349–79.

82 Munro, ‘Industrial Transformations’.

83 The Greinschuurstraat was named after the ‘greinschuur’ that was first mentioned in 1374, see A. Schouteet, De straatnamen van Brugge. Oorsprong en betekenis (Bruges: Vanden Broele, 1977), p. 74. Another one located in the ‘Vilerstrate’ (nowadays Violierstraat) near ten Hoye was first mentioned in 1416, see fol. 14v, no. 725, Commun Onze-Lieve-Vrouw, State Archives, Bruges.

84 Willems, Collection, pp. 72–73.

85 Among the ‘foreign cloths’ mentioned in the late fourteenth-century to early fifteenth-century wage regulations of the raemsceerres are the ‘breede’ (broadcloths) and ‘smalle lakenen’ (cheaper, small cloths) from Diksmuide as well as cloths called ‘Dueyten’, probably referring to the city of Douai. Ibid., pp. 70–71.

86 Fols 1r–2r, Droogscheerdersboek, 324, Droogscheerders, City Archives, Bruges. The raemsceerres numbered 18 master craftsmen and 30 apprentices, compared to 38 master craftsmen and 20 apprentices for the scepsceerres. In addition to these groups, the guild also counted 11 guildsmen ‘diere buten zijn’ (probably men who had been banished) and 19 ‘hofsitters’, who may perhaps be identified as tenter-tenants who did not actually perform manual labour.

87 Vermaut, ‘Structural Transformation’, pp. 196–97. See also R. van Uytven, ‘Een statistische bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van de linneninvoer in Engeland in de laatste jaren der XIVe eeuw, in het bijzonder van uit de Nederlanden’, Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis bijzonderlijk van het aloude hertogdom Brabant, 44 (1961), pp. 31–41; Boone, ‘L’industrie textile’, pp. 44–50.

88 W. H. J. Weale, ‘Château fort construit par Philippe le Bel, à Bruges en 1302’, La Flandre: Revue des monuments d’histoire et d’antiquités (1867–1868), pp. 67–69.

89 See e.g. Wyffels and De Smet, De rekeningen, vol. 1, pp. 1049, 1257, 1400, 1469. It was only in the last quarter of the fifteenth century that this field would be re-involved in the textile industry, though not as tentergrounds but as a meadow used for the bleaching of linens. See fols 161v, 169r, 1480/1, 216, Stadsrekeningen.

90 Fols 74v, 78r, 79r–v, 80r–v and 95r–v, 1333/4, 216, Stadsrekeningen.

91 Vermaut, ‘De textielnijverheid in Brugge’, pp. 59–63.

92 See the comments by the clercs of St John’s hospital in fols 18r–19r, B11 (dated 1380, with later additions), Rentenboeken, and fol. 10v, B12 (dated 1395), Rentenboeken. A bleaching meadow in the Westmeers was first mentioned in a charter from 1421 (No. 1063, Charters, Sint-Janshospitaal, Sint-Janshospitaal, City Archives (OCMW Archives), Bruges.

93 In 1287 the total length of the tenter plots ‘iuxta Beghinas’, Cattevoorde, ten Hoye and ten Freren ackere amounted to 15,260 metres. Unfortunately, there are no records for the Meers. The earliest available records for this field (1307) indicate a total length of at least 3,185 metres of tenter plots.

94 For the annual tentering capacity, see the calculations by H. Kaptein, De Hollandse textielnijverheid, 1350–1600: Conjunctuur & continuïteit, Amsterdamse historische reeks. Kleine serie 35 (Hilversum: Verloren, 1998), p. 127 for fifteenth-century Leiden and sixteenth-century Amsterdam.

95 Fol. 11v, 1503/4, 216, Stadsrekeningen; fol. 11r, 1510/1, 216, Stadsrekeningen.

96 Fol. 4v, 1641/2, 216, Stadsrekeningen. After this date, the city accounts no longer mention the tenter frames of ten Hoye.

97 Kinnaer and Troubleyn, ‘Heide, wol en linnen’, p. 61.

98 P. De Spiegeler, ‘La draperie de la Cité de Liège des origines à 1468’, Le Moyen Âge, 85 (1979), pp. 57–59; idem, ‘Documents relatifs aux drapiers de Liège (XIVe–XVe siècles)’, Bulletin de la Commission Royale d’Histoire, 142 (1976), pp. 6–7.

99 Fol. 10v, 1468/9, 216, Stadsrekeningen: ‘Ramen te Cattevoorde … van den scherers int ghemeene 4 lb. 5 s. 7 d. ob. Jo.’. Already in 1470, the land rented by the craftsmen of Cattevoorde was no longer recorded in the city accounts among the revenues from the tenter plots. Instead it was listed among the revenues from the hofsteden, which included both building plots and farmland, indicating that the land had remained idle and that the city government no longer considered it as an active part of the industrialised zone. Ibid., 1470/1, fol. 9r: ‘Hofsteden binnen Cattevoorde … Van den scheerers int ghemeene 4 lb. 5 s. 7 d. ob. Jo.’.

100 Fol. 68v, B24 (d.d. 1462), Rentenboeken: ‘’t ambocht van den raemscherers die in hueren hebben de mersch daer de ramen in staen om 9 lb. 12 s. par. tsjaers’; fol. 63r, B28 (d.d. 1473), Rentenboeken; s.f., 1475/6 and 1485/6, G186, Rekeningen, Sint-Janshospitaal, City Archives (former OCMW Archives), Bruges.

101 Fol. 9v, 1333/4, 216, Stadsrekeningen; fols 10r–11v, 1360/1, 216, Stadsrekeningen.

102 For numbers on the influx of (often foreign) immigrants, see E. Thoen, ‘Verhuizen naar Brugge in de late middeleeuwen: De rol van de immigratie van de poorters in de aanpassing van de stad Brugge aan wijzigende ekonomische omstandigheden, 14e–16e eeuw’, in Beleid en bestuur in de oude Nederlanden: Liber amicorum prof. dr. Michel Baelde, ed. H. Soly and R. Vermeir (Ghent: RUG Vakgroep nieuwe geschiedenis, 1993), pp. 329–49.

103 Already in 1322/3, for instance, the rental income from the tenter plots of the Meers constituted a mere 0.45 per cent of the hospital’s entire income (G44, Rekeningen, Sint-Janshospitaal, City Archives (former OCMW Archives), Bruges).

104 B. Dewilde et al., ‘“So One Would Notice the Good Navigability”: Economic Decline and the Cartographic Conception of Urban Space in Late Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Bruges’, Urban History, 45 (2018), p. 7.

105 A similar argument based on urban property taxes was made in H. Deneweth, W. Leloup and M. Speecke, ‘Een versteende ruimte? De impact van stedelijke veranderingsprocessen op de sociale topografie van Brugge, 1380–1670’, Stadsgeschiedenis, 13, no. 1 (2018), pp. 19–40.

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Mathijs Speecke

Mathijs Speecke (1993, Roeselare) studied history at Ghent University, where he specialised in medieval political history. In March 2016 he prepared a PhD thesis on the struggle for urban space in late medieval Bruges under the supervision of Prof. Dr Jan Dumolyn (Ghent University) and funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). In this research project, he unravels the topographical distribution of power in late medieval Bruges and examines the strategies that were behind the production of space and the moulding of the urban landscape by various actors, social groups and institutions that were involved in this power game.