| |has been preserved upon a | |blade. Rico y Sinobas | |suggests thatthe entire | |surname may have been | |_Vicen-Perez_. | | Zeruantes, |Late 17th century |Toledo. Maker of blades for Francisco | |halberds. | | Zamora ("the deaf") |Late 16th century |Castile. Cutler, |and early 17th | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- APPENDIX H SPANISH TRADE-GUILDS The _gremios_ of Spain were copied from the guilds of France and other countries, and may be traced originally to the _corpora_ and _collegia_ of the Romans and Byzantines. The earliest which were formed in the Peninsula were those of Barcelona[64] and Soria, succeeded, not long after, by Valencia, Seville,[65] and Toledo. Prior, however, to the institution of these trade-guilds proper, whose purpose was pre-eminently mercenary,[66] there existed, in the case of several cities, _cofradías_ or religious brotherhoods, that is, associations of a philanthropic character, composed of tradesmen or artificers who pledged themselves to assist each other in poverty or sickness, or to defray the burial expenses of such members as should die without resources. [64] See Pérez Pujol, _Condición social de las personas á principios del siglo V_. "The ironsmiths of Barcelona," says Riaño, "formed an extensive guild in the thirteenth century; in 1257, four of its members formed part of the chief municipal council; this guild increased in importance in the following centuries." [65] The history of the Sevillian trade-guilds begins properly with the fifteenth century, although Gestoso states in his _Diccionario de Artífices Sevillanos_ that he has found a few documents which seem to point to their existence in the century preceding.