ABSTRACT
The 1551 and 1561 censuses recorded only the relatively small number of skilled workers who claimed an occupational title. Yet all textile industries, and silk most of all, relied on an army of unskilled workers and day laborers, in the areas of primary processing. Using digital tools together with other sources, makes it possible to chart how economic activity, social discipline, occupational regulation, and charity developed in Florence through a period of intense political and economic change. On the eve of the Black Death in 1348, Florence was among the largest cities in Italy and indeed Europe, with a population estimated at 120,000. While the conservatories used work as one means of many to keep their girls occupied, sheltered, and fed, the Ospedale dei Mendicanti was explicitly designed and built as a workhouse for unemployed men and women from the textile industry.
