The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume 3 (of 3)

by Leonard Williams

APPENDIX G

SPANISH CUTLERS

In former times excellent cutlery, such as knives, scissors, daggers, spearheads, and surgical instruments, was made in Spain, at Seville, Albacete, Toledo, Valencia, Pamplona, Ronda, Peñíscola, Guadix, Ripoll, Mora, Olot, and Tolosa. Rico y Sinobas has given an interesting description of the workshop and apparatus of one of these old Spanish cutlers—his graduated set of hammers, weighing from a few ounces to five pounds, his hand-saws, bench-saw, chisels, pincers, files, and drills, his forge, measuring from a yard square to a yard and a half, his two anvils of the toughest iron, the larger with a flat surface of three inches by ten inches, for ordinary work, the smaller terminated by conical points for making the thumb and finger holes of scissors.[63] The method of tempering and forging practised by these cutlers was much the same as that of the Toledo swordsmiths.

Rico y Sinobas also embodied in his essay the following list of cutlers and cutler-armourers, who manufactured knives, penknives, scissors, parts of firearms, or heads and blades for lances, halberds, and the like. The following is a summary of the list in question:—

Name.	Date.	Worked at
Acacio	17th century	He made spearheads and fittings for crossbows.
Aguas, Juan de	Early in 18th century	Guadix.
Alanis	Late 16th century	? Maker of fittings for crossbows.
Albacete	Late 18th century	Albacete. Scissors-maker.
Ambrosio	Late 18th century	Mora. Maker of large scissors for sheep-shearing.
Arbell, Ramón	17th century (?)	Olot. Knife-maker.
Azcoitia (the elder)	Late 15th century and early 16th	Guipúzcoa (?). A celebrated maker of pieces for crossbows.
Azcoitia (Cristóbal)	16th century	? Also a maker of pieces for crossbows. He was the fourth descendant of the family who worked at this branch of the cutler's craft.
Azcoitia (Juan)	16th century	? Perhaps a member of the same family. He also made pieces for crossbows.
Beson, Manuel	18th century	Madrid. Knife-maker.
Bis, Francisco	18th century	Madrid (see Vol. I., p. [273]). Maker of knives and arquebuses.
Blanco, Juan	16th century	Maker of crossbows, and of pieces for the same.
Castellanos (the elder)	18th century	Albacete. Scissors-maker.
Castellanos (the younger)	18th century and early 19th	Albacete. Scissors-maker.
Castillo, Gregorio	Late 16th century	Cataluña (?). Scissors-maker.
Cerda, Miguel de la	Late 16th century	Madrid and Segovia. He made scissors and other cutlery.
Criado, Juan	Early 17th century
Diaz, Pedro	Early 18th century	Albacete. Scissors-maker.
Escobar, Cristóbal	Late 16th century and early 17th	Madrid (?). Maker of pieces for crossbows.
Escobar, Juan	17th century	Madrid (?). Son of the preceding, and also a maker of pieces for crossbows.
Fernandez Manso de Payba, José	Late 18th century	Guadalajara. A Portuguese, naturalized in Spain. He was a scissors-maker of considerable fame.
Fuente, Pedro de la	Late 15th century or early 16th	Madrid (?). Maker of crossbows and their pieces.
García, Domingo	Late 17th century	Madrid. Arquebus-maker and cutler.
García de la Torre, Teodoro	Early 18th century	Guadalix and Alcorcón. Cutler. In company with Manuel Beson, he invented a method of converting iron into steel.
Garijo	18th century	Albacete. Scissors-maker.
Garro, Martín	Early 15th century	Pamplona. Cutler and swordsmith. A letter dated October 31st, 1406, records that he was paid five escudos for making a sword, and one escudo for a dagger.
Gomez, Mateo	Late 17th century	Albacete. Scissors-maker.
Grajeras	17th century	Madrid (?). Maker of pieces for crossbows.
Grande, Juan	17th century	Madrid (?). Maker of lanceheads.
Gutierrez	Late 17th century	Chinchilla. Scissors-maker.
Hernandez, Juan	16th century	Madrid (?). Maker of pieces for crossbows.
Herraez, Andres	Late 16th century	Cuenca. Arquebus-maker and cutler.
Herrezuelo (the elder)	Late 16th century and early 17th	Baeza. Cutler.
Herrezuelo (the younger)	Early 17th century	Baeza. Scissors-maker.
Horbeira, Angel	Late 17th century	Madrid. Cutler; a native of Galicia, and reputed to be one of the best craftsmen of his time. He was known as El Borgoñon, and passed his early life in Flanders.
Hortega	Early 16th century	? Maker of pieces for crossbows.
Lallabe, Juan de	Early 19th century	? Cutler, locksmith, and maker of surgical instruments.
Lastra, Juan	17th century	Madrid (?). Maker of pieces for crossbows. He was one for crossbows. He was one of the latest and most celebrated of these craftsmen.
Leon	Early 18th century	Albacete. Scissors-maker.
Llorens, Pablo	Late 17th century	Olot. Cutler.
Marcoarte, Simon	Late 16th century and early 17th	Madrid. Arquebus-maker and cutler. He was the son of another craftsman of the same name, who settled in Spain in the reign of Charles the Fifth (see Vol. I., p. [273]).
Martinez, Juan	Early 16th century	? Maker of darts and lancesfor crossbows.
Mendoza, Francisco and Manuel	Early 18th century	Trigueros (Old Castile). Cutlers.
Moreno, Luis	Late 15th century	Madrid (?). Maker of pieces for crossbows.
Moro, El	Late 18th century and early 19th	Madrid. Cutler.
Muñoz of Getafe	16th century and early 17th	? Maker of pieces for crossbows.
Óipa, Juan	?	Madrid. Maker of crossbows.
Perez de Villadiego, Juan	16th century	Madrid (?). Maker of pieces
Perez, Julian	Early 17th century	Madrid (?). Maker of darts and lances for crossbows.
Puebla (the elder)	Early 16th century	Madrid. Maker of parts of crossbows.
Ramirez, Juan	Late 16th century	? Cutler. He emigrated to the city of Puebla de los Angeles, in Mexico, where he continued to make knives, scissors, and weapons of good quality.
Renedo (the elder)	Early 16th century(?)	? Maker of darts and lances for crossbows.
Renedo (the younger)	Late 16th century and early 17th	? Son of the preceding. He made the same objects as his father.
Romero	Late 18th century	Albacete. Scissors-maker.
Rosel	?	Mora. Scissors-maker.
San José, Brother Antonio	Late 17th century	Jaen. Scissors-maker.
Santamaría	Late 16th century and early 17th	Madrid (?). Maker of pieces for crossbows.
Selva, Juan	Late 18th century	Cartagena and Madrid. Cutler and iron-founder.
Segura	Late 18th century and early 19th	Mora. Scissors-maker.
Sierra, Juan	18th century	Albacete. Scissors-maker.
Soler, Isidro	Late 18th century and early 19th	Madrid. Arquebus-maker, cutler, and author of An Historical Essay on making Arquebuses.
Sosa	17th century	Madrid (?). Maker of weapons, especially the heads of lances.
Targarona, Francisco	Late 18th century	Madrid. Arquebus-maker to Charles the Third and Charles the Fourth, and one of the most skilful craftsmen of his day.
Tijerero, El (Domingo Sanchez)	?	Toledo. Maker of swords and scissors.
Torres	Early 17th century	Albacete. Scissors-maker.
Ucedo	Late 16th century and perhaps early 17th	? Maker of pieces for crossbows.
V....	16th century (?)	Toledo (?). Scissors-maker. The rest of this craftsman's name is not known.
Valderas, Pedro de	16th century	Madrid and Valladolid. Maker of pieces for crossbows.
Vicen-Perez, Pedro	Late 17th century	Albacete. Scissors-maker.
Vilarasa, Antonio	Late 17th century	? Cutler and razor-maker.
Vilarasa, Antonio	Late 17th century	? Cutler and razor-maker.
... Emt.., Julian	Early 18th century	Albacete. Scissors-maker. Only a fragment of his name has been preserved upon a blade. Rico y Sinobas suggests that the entire surname may have been Vicen-Perez.
Zeruantes, Francisco	Late 17th century	Toledo. Maker of blades for halberds.
Zamora (“the deaf”)	Late 16th century and early 17th	Castile. Cutler,

APPENDIX H

SPANISH TRADE-GUILDS

The gremios of Spain were copied from the guilds of France and other countries, and may be traced originally to the corpora and collegia of the Romans and Byzantines. The earliest which were formed in the Peninsula were those of Barcelona[64] and Soria, succeeded, not long after, by Valencia, Seville,[65] and Toledo. Prior, however, to the institution of these trade-guilds proper, whose purpose was pre-eminently mercenary,[66] there existed, in the case of several cities, cofradías or religious brotherhoods, that is, associations of a philanthropic character, composed of tradesmen or artificers who pledged themselves to assist each other in poverty or sickness, or to defray the burial expenses of such members as should die without resources.

The formula of admission to a Spanish brotherhood was very quaint in its punctilious and precise severity. A notice of this ceremony, relating to the Cofradía of Saint Eligius, or Silversmiths' Brotherhood of Seville,[67] is quoted by Gestoso from the venerable Regla de Hermandad or statutes of the members, preserved in a codex dating from the first half of the sixteenth century. It was required that the candidate for admission should be a silversmith, married in conformity with the canons of the church, a man well spoken of among his neighbours, and not a recent convert to the Christian faith. The day prescribed for choosing or rejecting him was that which was consecrated to Saint John the Baptist, coinciding with the festival of Saint Eligius or San Loy, “patron and representative” of silversmiths, and who in life had been a silversmith himself. The regulations of the Cofradía decreed the following method of election. “In the chest belonging to the Brotherhood shall be kept a wood or metal vessel with space sufficient to contain some fifty beans or almonds; and the said vessel shall be set in our chapter-room, in a spot where no man is. Each of the brothers that are present shall next be given one of the beans or almonds, and, rising from his seat, arrange his cloak about him so as to conceal his hands, in order that none may witness whether he drops, or does not drop, the almond or the bean into the vessel. Then, with due dissimulation, he shall proceed to where the vessel lies, and if he deem that he who seeks to be admitted as our brother be an honourable man, and such as shall contribute to the lustre of our Brotherhood, then shall he drop in a bean or almond, and return to his seat, still covering his hands with his cloak. But if, upon the contrary, he deem that the said candidate be a sinner, and a riotous fellow and bad Christian, that should prove a source of evil and vexation to our chapter, or that hath wronged another of our brethren, then shall he not cast in the bean or almond, but secretly reserve the same, and once more seat himself. Lastly, when all shall have crossed over to and from the vessel, they shall bear it to the table where the officers sit, and void it in the sight of all the company, and count the beans or almonds; and if the number of these be full, then is it clear that we do receive the other for our Hermano. But if there be a bean or almond wanting, in that a brother hath retained it in his fingers, then shall our Alcaldes speak to this effect. ‘Señores: here wants a bean or almond’ (or two, or any number, as may be). ‘Within eight days from now let him that kept it back present himself to us, or to any one of us, and give account why he that sought admission to our Brotherhood deserves to be rejected.’ And if the brother that kept back the bean or almond should not present himself within the appointed time, then shall the Brotherhood admit the other: but if he appear, and state a lawful cause against the other's entry, then our Alcaldes, when this last presents himself to learn their resolution, shall urge him to have patience, in that not all the brothers are content with him, albeit, if such cause consisteth in a quarrel between a brother and the candidate for entry, peace may be brought about between the two, and afterward the Cofradía may admit him of their number.”