Boys entered the world of men most often by passing exams to become full guild members in their craft. They had spent their apprentice years serving in the shop, first with menial chores, and gradually with more skilled work. In some cases, as in the building trades, they had been hired on work crews at a fraction of the adult pay rate. In other cases, the guild had required them to take a final journeyman year and work in another city, to broaden knowledge of the trade in other places and form useful social ties.
Entering the guild at last was done by an examination that, to us, seems a bit like some of our reality shows. “Iron Chef,” for example, could serve well as a competition for membership in the cooks’ guild, as could “Cake Boss.”
Each guild had a sense of what mattered most in their craft, and they set a challenge. Bakers had to make a certain number of difficult, fancy breads within a set time. Goldsmiths made intricate jewelry. Masons, who were both stonecutters and architects, had to demonstrate that they could make arches, foundations, pillars and walls. Free masons carved sculptures like gargoyles or intricate fan-like supports for the ceiling.
The difficulty of the test went up a lot when the guild felt that their profession was full already. Cities that needed more craftsmen could keep their test easier; doubtless, word got around about how difficult or easy it was to join a city’s guild. Examination pieces must have been shown in the guild hall for a time. It was very difficult to become an armorer in Milan; not so hard to become a saddler in Stockholm.
Once a guild member, the young man may have continued working in the same shop, or he may have used a marriage alliance to join another man’s shop. Although girls were free to marry anyone, they tended to stay within the family profession most of the time. It was an advantage to find a wife who was already used to the hours, smells or dirt of a profession by having grown up around it. In some other cases, inheriting a small legacy at the right time would have allowed young men to start their own shops.
this is amazing