Merchants' Stalls and Shops in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance

Following are depictions of merchants' stalls and shops from the later Middle Ages and Renaissance. While most sites for re-enactment events lack these sorts of permanent structures (although some have found ways to create portable structures emulating these sorts of buildings), these links illustrate how different sorts of wares were displayed.

• A shop where boots and shoes are sold in a detail from the Frescoes of the Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, c. 1338-1340
• A candle-seller, Tacuinum Sanitatis (Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Codex Vindobonensis, series nova 2644), c. 1370-1400
• Tacuinum Sanitatis (BNF Nouvelle acquisition latine 1673), c. 1390-1400, includes sellers of wool clothing (fol. 94), linen clothing (fol. 94v), and silk clothing (fol. 95), as well as several merchants of foodstuffs; use Mandragore to view the manuscript
• Merchants, De proprietatibus rerum (BNF Fr. 22531, fol. 257v), first quarter of the 15th century
• Tacuinum Sanitatis (BNF Latin 9333), 15th century, includes sellers of wool clothing (fol. 103), linen clothing (fol. 103v), and silk clothing (fol. 104), as well as several merchants of foodstuffs; use Mandragore to view the manuscript
• A shopkeeper sells the handicrafts made by the queen, Schondoch's Story of the Queen of France (ÖNB 2675, fol. 6v), c. 1424-1435
• Detail from St. Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Madonna by Rogier van der Wyeden, c. 1435
• A figurine-seller in a detail from an altarpiece, 1445
• St. Eligius in his Workshop by Petrus Christus, 1449

There were stallis by þe strete stondyng for peopull, Werkmen into won, and þaire wares shewe, Of all þe craftes to ken as þere course askit: Goldsmythes, Glouers, Girdillers noble; Sadlers, souters, Semsteris fyn; Tailours, Telers, Turners of vesselles; Wrightes, websters, walkers of cloth; Armurers, Arowsmythis with Axes of werre: Belmakers, bokebynders, brasiers fyn; Marchandes, Monymakers, Mongers of fyche; Parnters, painters, pynners also; Bochers, bladsmythis, baxters amonge; fferers, flecchours, fele men of Crafte; Tauerners, tapsters, all the toune ouer; Sporiors, Spicers, Spynners of clothe; Cokes, condlers, couriers of ledur; Carpentours, cotelers, coucheours fyn; With barburs biget in bourders of the stretes; With all maister men þat on molde dwellis, Onestly enabit in entris Aboute. The Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy, ll. 1580-1600

• Aristotle's Ethics, Politics, and Economics (Rouen I.2 927), 15th century; the three types of friendship (fol. 127v) and currency as a a measure of commercial trade (fol. 145r)
• Detail in the Return from Egypt at Heiligenkreuz, Austria, c. 1465-1475
• Transferring the body of St. James the Greater by Friedrich Herlin, 1466
• The draper sells cloth, Schachzabelbuch des Konrad von Ammenhausen (Wrttembergische Landesbibliothek, Cod. poet. 2, fol. 244), 1467
• Libro de componere herbe et fructi (BNF Italien 1108), c. 1471, includes several merchants of foodstuffs; use Mandragore to view the manuscript
• A stall where purses and girdles (and related accoutrements) are sold in The Birth of Mary from an altarpiece at Kirchdorf an der Krems, c. 1475-1485
• A goldsmith's shop in the Book of simple medicines (BNF Fr. 9136, fol. 344), fourth quarter of the 15th century
• Allegory of June: The Triumph of Mercury, fresco at the Palazzo Schifanoia by Cosme Tura, c. 1476-1484
• A mercer's shop, Faits et choses du monde (BNF Arsenal 5081, fol. 33v), c. 1480; the display includes jewelry, belts, mirrors, combs, pins, needles, and toys
• Cy speaks about the state of merchants and commerce (cloth merchants showing honesty in weights and measurements), Le Livre de bonnes moeurs de Jacques Legrand (Musée Condée 297, fol. 122v), c. 1490
• Marketplace frescoes at Issogne, late 15th-early 16th century (detail)
• Detail from The Annunciation in the altarpiece of the Church of St. Gumbertus in Ansbach, c. 1490-1510
• The market street in the Book of the government of princes (BNF Arsenal 5062, fol. 149v), beginning of the 16th century; further analysis of the illustration here
• A Persian horseman at the bazaar (fol. 33) and the bazaar at Kûfa (fol. 41), Mahzan al-Asrâr (BNF supp. turc 978, fol. 41), first half of the 16th century
• The November section of Die Augsburger Monatsbilder, 1520s; see especially this detail
• Illustrations from Eigentliche Beschreibung aller Stände auf Erden, 1568