MAESTRANZE

MAESTRANZE. - Term used in Sicily to designate the guilds of arts and trades, which, numerous, although under different names and with special characteristics, developed in every city of Italy during the Middle Ages.

The earliest origins of the Sicilian m. can be traced back as far as the period of Arab domination,

although the existence of the first Sicilian artisan associations becomes certain only at the beginning of the 14th century. At their head were the consuls and counselors, the former being nominated by the corporation and recognized by a patent from the Commune. The functions of the consul were principally those of representing the college, intervening to settle any disputes that might arise concerning matters relating to the craft, deciding, together with two counselors, on the admission or rejection of new apprentices, presiding over meetings, and administering the property of the corporation. Serving as a higher authority was the praetor or major consul, who provided for the resolution of any controversies arising between the consuls themselves or between them and third parties. Each m. was governed by its own statutes or chapters, which had to be approved by the Commune, where a copy of them was kept.

Each craft formed a separate group, each having its own district, which took its name from the m. that practiced its trade and occupation there (contrata barberiorum, contrata planellariorum, etc.), its own church, its patron saint, its own laws, and its own customs. Entry into a craft, for those who had not been raised and brought up within it, was no easy task, since both the craft and the workshop with its tools and even the customers were strictly hereditary. The united m., but each under the orders of its respective consul, also made up the civic militia; in Palermo, in fact, the fourteen bastions, with weapons and equipment provided by the Commune, were entrusted to them in case of need.

The initial decline of the m. in Sicily began in the second half of the 18th century due to their very rigid closed-caste structure, when—after pointing out the harm caused to national industry by their nature as monopolistic bodies, in order to restore the necessary freedom to the arts—by royal dispatch of November 16, 1784, the statutes of all m. were abolished and they were divided into two classes, namely the m. of the mechanical arts, numbering 44, under the authority of a delegate minister, and those concerning the grain supply (annona), numbering 15, subject to the Senate in its capacity as grain-supply magistrate. All m. that could not be included in the aforementioned two categories were to be understood as immediately abolished, because they were deemed "illegitimately existent." Restored nonetheless by royal dispatch of October 13, 1812, after the revolution of 1820 the m. of every kind were definitively suppressed by royal rescript of March 13, 1822, following a report by the director-general of police, in which they were represented as "a united force opposing the power of the government." In the modern meaning, m. commonly refers to the workers of arsenals and shipyards, sometimes organized in companies headed by engineers, or the workers of any industrial complex. To outline their socio-economic problems, other, more comprehensive terms are usually employed today (v. INDUSTRIALISMO; PROLETARIATO). For trade union problems, V. SINDACALISMO E SINDACATO.