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not create a group’s corporate identity; the statutes of only two societies
mandated annual dinners.^233 When the members broke bread together, they
normally did so in the sacramentalized sharing of thebenedizione,the blessed
bread, at Mass. Typically, corporate meals were linked to members’ funerals.
Societies paid for poorer brothers’ obsequies, lest any lack suffrages, prayers,
and the dignity of Christian burial. Summoned by the society messenger,
members attended the deceased’s Requiem Mass at the society chapel. The
ministers then assigned pallbearers for the procession to the cemetery. After-
ward, pious duties completed, the society retired for their common dinner.^234
The religious ethos of the Bologna Armi statutes stands in strange contrast
to that of the city’s professional guilds, the Societa`delle Arti. Their legisla-
tion shares the same external forms as that of the Armi. It stipulates chapels,
monthly Masses, blessed bread, candle offerings, and funeral provisions.^235
But no fines punish absences, even at funerals. When the Arti legislate on
thebenedizioni,their concerns seem almost profane. The carpenters carefully
specified ‘‘two focaccias made with saffron and cumin, valued at 2 s. 14 d.
bon.’’^236 Perhaps a tasty snack brought out better attendance than fines. The
Arti’s statutes did prohibit work on holy days. But days of closure are so
numerous—and include nonreligious observances like May Day—that reli-
gious purpose seems lost or much demoted.^237 What are we to make of this
difference? It cannot be mere accident. The guilds did not reflect a more
‘‘secularized’’ segment of the population in any measurable sense. These
organizations were hardly restricted to the well-to-do, even if the rich were
less pious than the poor—a dubious assumption. Their matricula show
membership numbers equaling or exceeding those of the Armi societies.^238
Nor does their economic nature as professional or craft associations suffice
to explain this. The wine-making corporation of Saint Eustace was just as
religious in flavor as the Armi and probably more a business contrivance
than any arts society. If we turn to Pisa, where professional guilds alone
composed the Popolo, the late fragments of their statutes have the same
intensely religious flavor as those of the Bologna Armi.^239 At Padua, where
thefrataliewere again craft oriented and again the sole corporations of the
- Ibid. (Balzani, 1230 ,c. 19 ), 1 : 126 ; (Branca, 1255 ,c. 18 ), 1 : 269.
- E.g., ibid. (Balzani, 1230 ,c. 31 ), 1 : 128 ; (Delfini, 1255 ,c. 10 ), 1 : 151 ; (Cervo, 1255 , cc. 30 – 31 ), 1 : 223.
Only one society had a regular Mass for the dead: ibid. (Lombardi, 1255 , cc. 7 – 8 ), 1 : 7. - E.g., for monthly Mass and meeting: ibid., 2 (Bambagina, 1288 ,c. 4 ), 2 : 399 ; (Fabbri, 1252 ,c.
18 ), 2 : 228 ; (Formaggiari, 1242 , cc. 5 – 6 ), 2 : 167 ; (Coltelli, 1294 , cc. 3 – 4 ), 2 : 412. On candle offerings: ibid.
(Cambiatori, 1245 ,c. 79 ), 2 : 95 ; (Formaggiari, 1242 ,c. 37 ), 2 : 176. On funerals, e.g.: ibid., 1 (Beccai, c. 44 ),
2 : 374 – 75. - Ibid., 2 (Falegnami, 1264 ,c. 48 ), 2 : 213. The ironworkers, ibid. (Ferratori, 1248 ,c. 22 ), 2 : 185 ,
specified ‘‘duas pulcras focacias’’ for their annual Mass on the Feast of the Purification of Mary. - E.g., ibid. (Mercantixiii,c. 17 ), 2 : 127 – 28 ; (Lana 1256 ,c. 100 ), 2 : 309 ; (Spadai, 1283 ,c. 34 ), 2 : 343.
- Pini, ‘‘Problemi di demografia,’’ 197.
- For what remains, see the statutes of the Guardia della Beata Vergine Madonna Santa Lucia of
1322 : Pisa Stat.i, pp. 703 – 10. These treat almsgiving (ibid., pp. 704 – 5 ), suffrages (pp. 705 – 6 ), monthly
Mass (pp. 706 – 7 ), the society chapel (pp. 707 – 8 ), and candle offerings (p. 708 ).