Page 29 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Eonomy and Networks of Rural Elite Families in a Manufacturing Area

includes the declarations of a garzatore (raiser),¹ of some verzeghini (wool
beaters), and of wool combers from Schio, who declared that they had been
always employed in the textile sector, without any involvement in land cul-
tivation (Vianello 2004a, 243). Further, another trial, dated 1561, involv-
ing Vincenzo Lenzo, from San Vito di Leguzzano, and the merchant from
Schio, Amedeo Rigobello, includes even more interesting declarations;² in-
deed, all the witnesses were workers of Rigobello himself, who explained
that the first steps of fleece processing (first of all the combing and the
beating) took place in the workshop in the merchant’s house, with many
workers employed simultaneously (at least two or three men), together
with the sons of Amedeo. The workers were paid by the piece, usually on
Wednesday and Saturday, and while some of them were employed perma-
nently, the most part were hired according to the merchant’s needs. When
the wool was ready, it was then brought to the purgo (the structure where
the wool was washed and scoured) owned by Gian Battista Vanzo where,
using the wood procured by Amedeo Rigobello himself, it was washed in
hot water in caldiere grande (literally, ‘large cauldrons’) and then left out
to dry. The following steps – the spinning, weaving, and finishing of the
clothes – took place in the workers’ houses, for example, ‘the sons of Gi-
angiacomo Fusiniero, weaver in Schio’ (and they were paid on Wednesday
and Saturday).
Besides these evocative descriptions, more quantitative sources confirm
this picture in the long run, both in regard to the presence of workshops,
and to the importance of the textile sector and of the families we have re-
called many times in the previous lines. Regarding the woollen industry in
the fifteenth century, the scant information at our disposal confirms the
presence of relevant activities of woollen textiles production in the north-
ern part of the province of Vicenza, particularly in Arzignano, Cornedo,
Marostica, Thiene, Valdagno, and Schio (Demo 2001a, 82–3, 113, 188–9;
2004, 34, 39). Low-quality clothes were produced, both aimed at satisfying
a local demand and to be sold in the Venetian and international markets,
from the Middle East to the German area (Demo 2004, 34). As anticipated,
only the urban woollen industry could produce high-quality clothes, and
this sector was the centre of the economy of Vicenza in the fifteenth cen-

¹ For a description of the various steps in silk and wool manufacturing see the Glossary by
Andrea Caracausi in Lanaro (2006, 383–9).
² The trial is recalled in Demo (2004, 36). Documents are preserved in asvi, Banco del Sigillo,
b. 49, fasc. 2.

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