consists of the weapons and objects of personal adornment that have been found in large
numbers accompanying aristocratic burials of the period.
In jewelry making, early Frankish craftsmen worked most frequently with the
cloisonné process, which consisted of setting jewels in tiny compartments formed of gold
bands or strips soldered to a metal baseplate. The objects thus executed are a combination
of primitive and refined ornamentation, good examples of which can be seen in the
treasure of the Christian queen Arnegund (d. ca. 565), discovered in a tomb in the church
of Saint-Denis. Gold- and silversmiths had high social standing in early-medieval
cultures; compensation in silver for the murder of a serf was thirty sous, forty for a
carpenter, fifty for a blacksmith, but as much as a hundred for a gold- or silversmith.
A model early metalworker was St. Éloi (ca. 588–660), who was born in Limoges and
apprenticed there to the master of the mint. After creating two royal thrones of gold and
precious stones for Clotar II, he was made head gold-smith of the royal mint at Marseille.
After Clotar’s death in 629, his son Dagobert I continued to patronize Éloi, naming him
bishop of Tournai and Noyon as well as making him one of his chief ministers. Now
wealthy, Éloi founded a monastery at Solignac and a convent for women in Paris. With
his canonization, the bishop-goldsmith became the patron saint of silver-, gold-, and
blacksmiths.
By the 11th and 12th centuries, iron was more generally available, thanks largely to
imports from west Africa, and forges could now be found in most rural villages.
Although iron was still used primarily for military purposes (weapons and armor for both
men and horses), its greater abundance permitted the production of sturdier farming
implements, and these led to a revolution in agrarian techniques and productivity during
this period. Particularly significant was the development of the wheeled plow, with
coulter, share, and moldboard, which allowed farmers to till the heavy soils of northern
France efficiently for the first time. Steel, an iron-carbon alloy, is mentioned for the first
time in a text from Anjou dated to 1177. By the end of the 12th century, the blacksmith
and the miller were the backbone of the typical village hierarchy.
In jewelry making, the process of enameling was rediscovered in the early 12th
century, with the champlevé technique now predominating, and became widely used for
large jewels, brooches, rings, sword handles, and belt buckles. In spite of attempts by the
church to limit ostentatious display, ornamental jewels became more and more refined.
Noble men and women alike frequently placed a band of metal or a braided ribbon
decorated with pearls and precious stones (couronne) on their head. The rising
bourgeoisie of the northern cities, frequently as rich and powerful as the noble classes by
the 13th century, sought to imitate the nobility in their finery.
Religious devotional practice introduced the rosary, whose beads were made of gold,
bone, ivory, coral, mother of pearl, or amber. Enamel, having become too commonplace,
fell out of fashion, while diamonds, pearls, and gold and silver decorations were
preferred. Upper-class men and women had hands full of rings, and both sexes wore
belts, necklaces, bracelets, and metal bands on their head.
The development in the 13th century of guilds led to high degrees of specialization
among the metalworking crafts. Knife makers, for example, were divided into two guilds:
the cutler and the gold, wood, or ivory handle maker. Toward the end of the Middle
Ages, bills of Parlement in 1429 show that goldsmiths were forbidden to work with silver
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