Original scientific paper
The Rules of Three Donja Dubrava Craft Guilds from 1772 (an Overview of the Development of Crafts in Donja Dubrava in the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries)
Dragutin Feletar
; Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb – Full Professor (retired)
Abstract
During its eighteenth century baroque restoration, Donja Dubrava grew into a major settlement which soon developed centralized trades and crafts. Such a development reinforced its position at the confluence of the Mura and Drava Rivers and widened its catchment area to East Međimurje, the Podravina region around the municipality of Legrad and the Legrad uplands areas under Hungarian jurisdiction. While not being promoted to a free market town (oppidum), in the mid-eighteenth century Donja Dubrava became an autonomous municipality with all corresponding administrative bodies.
In the second half of the eighteenth century, several craft guilds were established in the town which was, at the time, home to more than fifty craftsmen in various trades. In the first half of the nineteenth century, their number grew to a roughly one hundred artisans. Among the crafts in Donja Dubrava, especially developed was that of cobbling or shoe-making. Accordingly, it can be assumed that the oldest guild was that bootmakers or cobblers. Since there were about fifteen mills on the Drava River, there was a millers’ guild as well, which encompassed millers from neighbouring Donji Vidovac. The youngest guild was that of ferrymen and boatmen, which was established in the first half of the nineteenth century.
This paper provides a detailed discussion of the original, preserved texts of the rules of three guilds dating back to 1772. These include the Tailors and Spinners Guild and the Great Guild, which included blacksmiths, locksmiths, carpenters, coopers, wagon-makers, joiners, saddlers and furriers. These rules were signed by Empress Maria Theresa and written on parchment in the Latin language. The third charter discussed in this paper refers to the Rules of the Great Guild’s Journeymen, also dating back to 1772, which were written in the old Kajkavian Croatian language.
The Guild or Funeral Society still operates at Donja Dubrava as a continuation of its guilds, which were formally abolished in 1872. Hence, this paper discusses the practices of this association as well. The paper concludes with an overview of the development of crafts and trades at Donja Dubrava throughout the twentieth century to date. Appended to this paper are the translations of the 1772 rules of Donja Dubrava guilds as well as the original transcript of the Rules of the Great Guild’s Journeymen.
Keywords
craft guild; guild master; journeyman; craftsmen; funeral society; Donja Dubrava
Hrčak ID:
77709
URI
Publication date:
1.6.2010.
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