Urban Claims and the Right to the City: Grassroots Perspectives from Salvador Da Bahia and London

Abstract

project, and in paying the workers we get the names of thousands of men and a few women who worked on the building as artisans, suppliers, and artists. Taken together the materials and labour open up the economics of such an ambitious project, laying out costs, works schedules, wages, types of skills employed, and something of labour conditions. In 1332, for example, the masons went out on strike in an effort to protect their wages. In some years the origins of the labourers are even included, showing that the king drew upon a wide catchment basin for workers. In many years the work was not voluntary but impressed, a practice that appears to have increase after the plague, when labour became scarce. Construction involved a wide range of artisans, with masons being the most prominent, followed by carpenters, glaziers, and metal workers. Among the masons and glaziers were also sculptors and painters. The records are detailed enough that the names and careers of some of the master artisans and artists are traceable. Similarly, the accounts provide information on the origins of materials. After wages, stone was the largest expense. Limestone from Caen, France was valued for its light colour and ease of work. Ragstone for filling the walls and piers and Purbeck marble for decoration were more locally sourced. The choice of stone depended on availability, often difficult when England and France were at war and the purpose or phase of construction. So detailed is the accounting that we learn about the image schemes and colour choices for walls, carvings, and windows, information that makes these records valuable to art historians. The fabric rolls also illustrate the growth of the royal bureaucracy and the development of administrative practices, including the careers of the bureaucrat, the clerk of the works, who oversaw both the palace of Westminster and the Tower. Over the century of the chapel’s construction, royal administration became increasingly specialized and centralized in response to the growth of royal expenditure. These changes also meant increased oversight, recourse to previous accounts when questions arose, and greater accountability. Two former clerks even went to prison for the debts they ran up. The publication of these records is a welcome addition not only to our knowledge of a lost medieval building of artistic import, but to our understanding of how such projects were financed and carried out. The decision to produce both the Latin and English translation greatly expands access to these records, making them a usable source in the classroom for students without Latin or access to the archives.