L’arte dei Beccaj of Parma

L’Arte dei Beccaj was one of the four Major Guilds making up the “Guild of Merchants”[1], which had great influence over the administration of the commune. A very great number of provisions about the Butchers’ Guild, including ones about public health and hygiene, are cited in the Municipal Statutes: the Beccaj were required to slaughter and sell cattle, pork, goat and sheep meats; each butcher had to consider it a sacred duty not to sell the meat of sick or infected animals and had to agree to a weekly inspection of its shop by the people acting on behalf of the Consul. The Butchers’ statute, one of the most important ones, even though it is a copy, dates to 1309 and was confirmed in 1448 by the podestà.
On the Feast of the Virgin in August, all the butchers immediately followed the podestà in the procession towards the Cathedral, something that was considered a privilege. It was forbidden to sell to the public or privately on Sundays and holidays. Meats could not be slaughtered and sold on the same day. Butchers with stalls or shops in public places could not rent them to anyone but other members of the Guild and it was forbidden to associate with one’s own apprentices. The podestà, who was in office for a year and received a compensation of 6 Parma pounds, was chosen by six electors nominated by all the members of the Guild. All these had to be recorded in “a large book” by the podestà, who also had to keep a second book with the names of all those serving the Corporation, and a third one with the names of the owners of the butcher’s shops. In the 14th century the butcher’s shops were all municipal property and were rented out at regular intervals; in 1478, when the contracts were renewed, they numbered fifteen: twelve near the square and three in Capo di Ponte (the other side of the river).

On February 4, 1545, a proclamation was issued for compensation to the owners of houses demolished for the construction of the town’s new butcher’s shops. Numerous other proclamations specified in turn the behaviour and care required of butchers. In 1707 the Guild was reformed and a new Statute was approved. The Guild was now governed by an Elder, the Mayor and a Farmer. Nobody could practice the trade outside of the designated area for butcher’s shops. During Lent only one shop – chosen by auction – could be kept open, and the amount it raised during that time had to be handed in to the Guild’s fund. Applications to join had to be submitted in the period from the first day of Lent to Holy Monday. In order to avoid “murmurs and discord“, the Tripparoli (tripe sellers) could only stop in the Butcher’s Shop for the time necessary to collect the entrails.

[1] Statutory organization of the Guild of Merchants was completed by the end of the consular period of the commune of Parma, in 1179, and it was organized in a hierarchical structure with “Mercanzia” at the top and “Ministeria subiecta Mercadancia” at the bottom. The Guilds gathered under the umbrella of Merchandise eventually separated into Major Guilds (which at the time of the commune under a podestà were four: Butchers, Blacksmiths, Furriers and Saddlers, Leather workers), Middle Guilds (eleven at the same period, with the Corporation of Tailors leading them), and finally the Minor Guilds (nine at the start of Giberto da Gente’s rule as Signore, thirteen when the Crusaders’ Society, or Guelph side, seized power). This subdivision also had political implications. The Guilds had been differentiating themselves according to their economic weight, thus creating a sort of divide between those practising a proper trading or high-level artisanal activity (bankers, furriers, blacksmiths, wool and linen merchants, butchers) and small craftsmen. This polarization became more entrenched over time, creating a clear division between traders and craftsmen. (COMUNE DI PARMA, Parma e il suo Comune, Parma, Step, 1989, p. 50).