ABSTRACT
The diversity and number of consumables in urban markets, portrayed so attractively in the popular Tacuinum sanitatis, c. 1380–1400, marked a remarkable enlargement of interest in visiting shops. It depicted shopping in a manner captivating for the public while it signaled to its viewers that provisioning local consumers was ripe for a rise in social status, dragging shop owners, hawkers, and salespeople, even raucous costermongers, along in its wake. Regulations for guilds like those in Perugia expanded beyond supervising corn and vegetable markets to inspecting guilds of mercers, second-hand cloth dealers, bag makers, goldsmiths, and even the local guild of miniaturists, all of whom had shops or set up stalls in the market. Shops provided a range in available wares, cost, and a heightened capacity for enhancement, which in turn tested an individual customer's ability to assess the whim of fashion, carry it all off, and in turn attract imitators.
