ABSTRACT
As with the terms rentier and 'merchant', 'artisan' has become something of a loaded term in the late medieval urban historiography, with the result that its use can create no small amount of confusion. Instead, 'artisans' and 'guildsmen' represented a full spectrum of urban householders belonging to all economic strata, from destitute workers to extremely wealthy entrepreneurs who happened to specialize in wholesaling materials for a particular industry. The Manresan evidence shows that a clear pattern of investment was pursued by women householders, which varied according to their wealth level. The two most important manufacturing sectors in Manresa during the early fifteenth century were the leather and cloth trades, in that order. The Liber Manifesti provides an unusually complete sample of all the women householders in a late medieval medium-sized town, providing statistics not only on their numbers and wealth but on how they invested and held their wealth according to their socioeconomic status.
