Eduardo JUÁREZ VALERO

Original title: El negocio del vidrio en la Península Ibérica medieval

Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World

Keywords: Glass, Glassmaking monopoly, Guilds, Protection of the secret knowledge, Trading.

Secret was the essence of the knowledge in the world of the glassmaking during the Middle and Modern Ages. As the glassmakers were protecting their secret knowledge, they were creating special types of guilds associated to a special legal environments. In Spain the most important example was the environment of the glassmakers’ guild of Barcelona and the Castilian way, especially in Cadalso de los Vidrios. This article studies the evolution of those legal environments and their influence in the Spanish glass monopoly.