Guilds

Medieval Guilds

In earlier medieval times, Guilds (originally Gilds) were social and religious institutions, providing mutual support to their members. In later periods, they came to be exclusive associations for mercantile groups, such as merchants, or craftsmen.

Ranks within the a guild included:

• Master
• Journeyman
• Apprentice

Guilds would help their members in a number of ways:

• Supporting the families of dead members
• Setting price ranges for wares (thus preventing uncompetitive pricing)

External Links

• The Guilds of Early Modern Augsburg Talks about the economics of the shoemakers, barbers & bathers, millers and joiners guilds of a 16th Century German City

Guilds in the SCA

Guilds in the SCA offer ways to improve and share your knowledge in the subject area, through in-person meetings and correspondence (snail mail and email list). They also encourage their artform to be practised more - more lessons, competitions in that topic, etc.

Some guilds use a structure of names (e.g. novice, journeyman, master, unranked) to indicate the assessed skill of a member. This rank generally indicates a few things:

• the assessed skill of the guild-member (i.e. how well they make/do guild-specific things - including how well-documented the things are)
• the productivity of the guild-member (i.e. how many things they've made or how many variants of skills they've learned)
• how skilled the guild member is at *teaching* the skill to others

For example, in Lochac's Royal Guild of Defence:

• Journeyman is an apprentice teacher and has mastered 3 different styles of period fencing
• Provost is an accepted teacher and has mastered 5 different fencing styles
• Guild-master is an exceptional teacher, has mastered 7 different styles and undertakes quality research.

Some of the Guilds are:

• Kingdom of Ealdormere
  • Bardic College of Ealdormere
  • Games Guild of Ealdormere
• Kingdom of Lochac
  • Bardic Guild (Entertainment)
  • Brewers, Vintners and Imbibers Guild (brewing and drinking)
  • Worshipful Company of Broiderers
  • Lochac Cooks' Guild
  • Royal Guild of Defence (rapier)
  • Fibre Guild
  • Painters and Limners Guild
  • College of Scribes (calligraphy and illumination)
  • Guild of the Silver Rondel (dance)
  • Woodworkers Guild

A full list of guilds in Lochac can be found at http://www.sca.org.au/lochac/groups/guilds.html

Internal Links

See also:

• mailing lists