Medieval Demographics Based on the 1427 Catasto of Florence - Part II

 

Other professions

There were a number of professions not found in the Catasto that would probably exist in most medieval cities. These include:

Beggar (Average) – Would be fairly common in a Medieval world. In Florence, beggars were wards of the church and weren't included in the Catasto.

Brush maker (Average) 

Cart wright (Uncommon) – How many do you really need?

Clothes mender (Common) – A necessary profession

Dentist (Uncommon) – The only thing they could do was pull teeth.

Fishermen (Average) – In cities near water

Fortune Tellers (Uncommon) – May or may not have magical abilities

Glass blower (Uncommon) – More common if the city specializes in glassware like Venice.

Herbalist / Alchemist (Uncommon)

Housewife (Very common) – Women who didn’t work in a trade ran the home and raised kids. Many of the respondents without a profession and may have been housewives.

Mage (Rare) – Mages who are willing to hire themselves out are rare.

Midwife (Average) – A very important profession in a time when pregnancy was risky

Monk (Uncommon) - Non-ordained members of a religious order. In a fantasy world they probably wouldn't have access to divine magic.

Pawn broker (Uncommon) – They lend money at high rates of interest. Note that some may have been included under the money-lender category.

Potter (Common) – Everyone likes pot.

Sailor (Average) – Only in seaports or along rivers

Sage (Rare) – A wise man or scholar. In the Medieval world, monks filed this role.

Shipbuilder (Uncommon) - Only found near large bodies of water. In England there were two guilds, the ship carpenters and the caulkers. I have no idea what the Italian practice was.

Perfumer (Rare)

Priest (Uncommon) - These are the ordained clergy who in a fantasy world would be spell casters.

Rag dealer (Average) – Buys rags to mend clothes or to sell to paper makers

Wet nurse (Uncommon) – Basically a human cow.  They nurse infants when the mother can’t give milk.

Wheel wright (Uncommon)

I’m sure there are others I haven’t thought of.

Illegal professions

Any good fantasy city also has criminals.

Assassin (Rare) – People who are both willing to kill for pay and good at it are unusual.

Assassins are hard to find. Hope they don't' find you.

Burglar (Uncommon) - There were housebreakers in Medieval times. Sometimes they literally broke through the walls.

Con artist / Hustler / Fixer (Average)

Counterfeiter / Coin Shaver (Uncommon) - A very dangerous profession.  Most lose their heads if caught.

Fence (Uncommon) – A person who buys and sells stolen goods. Some merchants might double as a fence.

Forger (Rare) – They create fake documents or forge signatures. A rare skill among a mostly illiterate population.

Pickpocket / Cutpurse (Average) – Probably the most common class of criminal. It’s a job kids can do too.

Pickpocket caught

Prostitute (Average) – The world’s oldest profession which remained very popular in the Middle Ages.

Smuggler (Uncommon) – Not just along the coast. Smugglers could help smuggle illegal goods into a city.

How to apply this information to your fantasy world

The goal of any exercise in estimating the demographics of a fantasy world should be to determine what’s reasonable. Because no one has ever observed a fantasy world in real life, it’s impossible to know the exact demographics of an actual fantasy world. An interesting fantasy world may bear little resemblance to Medieval England, France or Italy which tended to have villages every few miles and no wandering monsters.

Some general principles:

1. Concentrate on professions your players are likely to interact with.
2. Professions that provide goods or services to everyday people such as shoemakers, barbers, tailors, brewers or butchers will be the most numerous.
3. Professions that support the city's primary industry will be common.
4. Specialty professions such as paper makers, glass blowers or scribes will be uncommon.
   

Some professions such as latrine diggers or wet nurses probably aren’t too important to your campaign. I would concentrate on the professions that your players are likely to interact with such as innkeepers, provisioners, armorers and weapon smiths, money lenders, lawyers, government officials, clergy, alchemists, sages and mages (if you can find one).

If you choose to use the Catasto as a starting point, realize that Florence was an extremely advanced, wealthy city that specialized in the wool trade. The first thing I would do is reduce the percentage of lawyers/notaries. Under Italian law at the time all contracts had to be drafted and notarized by a notary. This wasn't and still isn't the case in common law countries. A notary or two per 1,000 residents is probably realistic for a fantasy city. Likewise, the percentage of judges would be lower.

Of course, if the city specializes in something other than the wool trade, the number of people working with wool will be drastically lower. If your fantasy city specializes in an industry such as in mining, agriculture, religious pilgrimage or something else, then professions that support the specialization would be the most abundant.

If your city is a port, it will have sailors, shipbuilders and fishermen, otherwise they will be very scarce. A capital will tend to have more government workers as well as lawyers.

If your land is at war, or near the border of another kingdom, or near the frontier with a wilderness there will be more soldiers and mercenaries as well as more armor and weapon makers.

A city known for its markets or fairs will probably have more merchants and dealers in luxury goods.

A provincial city in the middle of nowhere, even if it's large, may not have as many specialty professions (parchment makers, spice dealers, etc.) as a more sophisticated city.

A poor city will have fewer dealers in luxury goods than a rich city and will probably have more beggars and criminals.

The dominant alignment of your city, if there is one, will also impact the number of people practicing a profession. A lawful city will probably have more watchmen, lawyers and judges than a chaotic aligned city. It will probably have fewer criminals as well. An evil aligned city will probably have more criminals.

Lastly, I leave magic shoppes out of my cities entirely. How many magic items does a high-level character have? A dozen? Would they willingly part with any of them? It stretches belief to think that a merchant could acquire enough magic items to open a shop. There will probably be items owned by individual mages or collectors for sale, the players just have to find them. 

 

You're not going to find this shoppe

In summary, use your best judgement when using historical sources to estimate the demographics of your towns and cities.

Tags: Medieval, Middle Ages, Florence, Italy, Catasto, rpg, Dungeons and Dragons, fantasy world