128 Bruges
defeat in 1488 led to a union with the French royal
family in 1491.
See alsoHENRYII PLANTAGENET;HUNDRED YEARS’
WAR;JOHNLACKLAND;LOUISXI; NORMANDY AND THE
NORMANS.
Further reading:Nora K. Chadwick, Early Brittany
(Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1969); Wendy Davies,
The Inscriptions of Early Medieval Brittany (Oakville,
Conn.: Celtic Studies Publications, 2000); Wendy Davies,
Small Worlds: The Village Community in Early Medieval
Brittany(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988);
Patrick Galliou and Michael Jones, The Bretons(Oxford:
Blackwell, 1991); Michael Jones, Ducal Brittany,
1364–1399: Relations with England and France during the
Reign of Duke John IV(London: Oxford University Press,
1970).
Bruges(Brugge)Bruges is a city in FLANDERS, now
BELGIUM. It was the chief port of northern Europe in
the 13th and 14th centuries. In the seventh century,
the FRANKSbuilt a stronghold and town there.From the
ninth century this was an important castle of the counts
of Flanders. This BOROUGHgained further importance in
867, when the count reinforced its walls. Its commercial
activity expanded from the 10th century.
PROSPERITYBy the 11th century, Bruges had become the main center
of the English wool trade with the Continent. This trade
prompted the establishment of a huge textile industry.
From the beginning of the 12th century, Bruges was an
important trading and shipping center between the Mid-
dle East and northern Europe. Numerous Italian mer-
chants were active there, conducting banking and
trading activities between northern and southern
Europe. The counts of Flanders encouraged this trade
and granted merchants numerous liberties and privi-
leges. In 1190 the city established its own municipal
government. Bruges reached the peak of its prosperity in
international trade toward the end of the 13th century,
maintaining relations with the HANSEATICLEAGUEand
Italian cities.
POLITICAL CONFLICTThis patrician government was opposed by guilds formed
by the artisans and workers involved in the textile indus-
try. To preserve their dominance, the patricians allied
themselves with PHILIPIV the Fair, king of France, and
allied the city to him in 1301. This alliance produced,
however, a successful revolt against French domination
in 1302. The French monarchy never regained control
over Bruges, and the city’s merchants and artisans gov-
erned the city in an uneasy peace. Its economic prosper-
ity continued until the beginning of the HUNDREDYEARS’
WARin the 1330s and 1340s. It was during this era that
several beautiful Gothic municipal and private buildings
were constructed. They were rebuilt in the 19th and 20th
centuries and can still be seen.DECLINEBattles and Campaigns of the Hundred Years’ War
king EDWARDIII prohibited the exportation of wool to
Flanders, transferring it to Antwerp. The textile industry
of Bruges never really recovered from this. However, the
city remained a commercial and banking center through
the 15th century, resisting outside control until 1488.
During the same period, its harbor and route to the sea
became inaccessible because of silting.
See alsoARTEVELDE,JACOB VAN;EYCK,HUBERT VAN,
ANDEYCK,JAN VAN;GHENT;MEMLING,HANS.
Further reading:Raymond De Roover, Money, Bank-
ing and Credit in Mediaeval Bruges: Italian Merchant
Bankers, Lombards and Money-Changers (Cambridge,
Mass.: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1948); Jeff Rider,
God’s Scribe: The Historiographical Art of Galbert of Bruges
(Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America
Press, 2001); Reinhard Strohm, Music in Late Medieval
Bruges (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1985); Jean C.
Wilson, Painting in Bruges at the Close of the Middle Ages:
Studies in Society and Visual Culture (University Park:
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998).Brunelleschi, Filippo(1377–1446)sculptor, architect
Brunelleschi was born in FLORENCEin 1377, the son of
an eminent notary Brunellesco di Lippi. He entered the
SILK GUILDin 1398. The following year he was employed
as goldsmith in Pistoia, where he made several silver fig-
ures for the altar of Saint James in the Cathedral.
Brunelleschi entered the 1401 competition for a new set
of portals for the baptistery in Florence. His trial piece,
the Sacrifice of Isaac,lost to that of Lorenzo GHIBERTI,
who was awarded the commission. Brunelleschi’s relief
was derived stylistically from the work of Andrea PISANO.
In 1404 Brunelleschi was admitted as a master in the
goldsmiths’ guild in Florence, and later that year he was
consulted about creation of a buttress of the cathedral.
During the next decade the details of Brunelleschi’s life
are vague. He made several trips to ROMEto see its ancient
monuments. In 1415 he repaired a bridge in PISA.Two
years later he and other masters presented opinions on the
design and construction of a great dome for the cathedral
of Florence. Perhaps about then Brunelleschi come up
with a new method of constructing linear perspective.ARCHITECTURE
From 1418 Brunelleschi turned completely to architec-
ture. In two small domed chapels in San Jacopo Soprarno
and San Felicità Florence, he experimented with domical
construction. That same year he started the design and
building of the Church of San Lorenzo (1418–ca. 1470)