The painters and glassblowers of Nantes at the beginning of the modern age and their statutes (1574)

The Loire-Atlantique departmental archive and the town archive of Nantes preserve two ancient copies of the statute of the local corporation of painters and glaziers, established in 1574, together with a few other related documents. These sources shed new light upon the inner workings of an artistic trade and make it possible to compare its rules and regulations with those of similar communities documented in other French cities during the same period. Moreover, they provide various pieces of information about the individuals involved in that professional environment, and about the immediate context of its reorganisation, a context rife with issues of power and egos. Those responsible for drafting the statute seem to have depended on that of the community of painters and glaziers of Paris as their main source of inspiration, but the resulting text also contains some peculiarities, tailored to the specific situation of Nantes.