Florence is an open air museum…art is a constant theme. The city’s museums are many and we prefer to concentrate of the many arts and crafts which with much dedication have survived the centuries. Local artisans vary from shoe makers to gold leafing, stone setters to iron mongers and are mostly concentrated in the Oltr’Arno neighborhood.
ARTE DEI MERCATANTI O DI CALIMALA - ART OF THE GREAT MERCHANTS
In the Middle Ages, the ‘Calimala’ (situated in Via Calimala) was the most important guild.
The shops and merchants imported textiles from foreign countries, which they would re-work to resell.
Locally produced woolen cloth was exported by these merchants to all regions of Italy.
Some say the origin of the word comes from ‘Kalima’, a raw material imported from the Arab countries that was used to dye the textiles. The most accepted hypothesis is that the name originated from the Latin phrase ‘Callis Mallus’ (dire street). Evidently, prostitutes were known to frequent the area before it was transformed into an elegant medieval street!
The guild established a measuring unit called the canna de Calimala, which was an iron pole 4 arm lengths long (almost 2.33 meters).
This measurement was adopted by the city of Florence and further adopted in other countries.
ARTE DELLA LANA ART OF WOOL MASTERS
Their activities were similar to those of the Calimala, but they were more involved in the complete production cycle of cloth. They didn’t work with already woven cloth but started with the purchase of the raw materials to be woven into specific types and dyed to create extremely elaborate textiles. The refinement and skill of the Masters of this art generated enormous economic returns for the Republic. They even helped finance the construction of the magnificent Santa Maria del Fiore Duomo. In Via Calimala you can still see the building where the Arte Della Lana guild had its headquarters.
ARTE DELLA SETA or DI POR SANTA MARIA ART OF THE SILK MASTERS
These artisans worked tapestries fashioned from gold, silver and other exotic vibrant colors. This art experienced its greatest popularity during the second half of the 1400s, with the decline of Calimala and wool works.
Gino Capponi taught the Florentine artisans how to spin gold and weave it into silk, producing renowned embroidery. The guild was named ‘Arte di Por Santa Maria’ as the location of their works was at the gate of the inner defensive walls of Florence. All the respected families in Florence possessed private workshops in this area where fashionable tapestries would be created in individually recognizable styles. With the decline of the other trades, silk production was then consolidated in the Via dei Tessitori where large pieces of silk were decorated and worked for the embellishment of the palaces. Later the demand for these products became so great, that they transferred again to the area near Via Bartolini. Today l’Antico Setificio Fiorentino, The Antique Florence Silkworks is located in Via Bartolini, 4
