ABSTRACT
Covered markets were quite common between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in France, England and the Low Countries, but, taking into consideration the oriental bazaar, there were also many examples in Mediterranean countries. London's public markets demonstrated the ability of a very old, elementary building type to survive longer than anywhere else in Europe. In St Louis' time there were two halles aux draps: that of the weavers or the Bouvais and that of the drapers. Clearly modelled on the Antwerp bourse, it was square in plan with a spacious open courtyard surrounded by arcaded galleries. The meat market was given a recognisable identity and shape after 1339, when the Senate responded to the Querini brothers' conspiracy by designating part of their house to a 'stalon'. The markets for fruit, vegetables, spices, meat and fish were special places, the boundaries of which were often more precise in the magistracies' intentions than in real, physically recognisable signs.
