Artisans played a central role in the European town as it developed from the Middles Ages onwards. Their workshops were at the heart of productive activity, their guilds were often central to the political and legal order of towns, and their culture helped shape civic ritual and the urban order.

Contents: Past masters: in search of the artisan in European history, Geoffrey Crossick; Artisans and urban politics in 17th-century Germany, Christopher R. Friedrichs; Cultural analysis and early-modern artisans, James R. Farr; 'Broken all in pieces': artisans and the regulation of workmanship in early-modern London, Michael Berlin ; The aristocratic hÿtel and its artisans in 18th-century Paris: the market ruled by court society, Natacha Coquery; Craftsmen and revolution in Bordeaux, Josette Pontet; Craftsmen in the political and symbolic order: the case of 18th-century Malmö, Lars Edgren; Women and the craft guilds in 18th-century Nantes, Elizabeth Musgrave; Worlds of mobility: migration patterns of Viennese artisans in the 18th-century, Josef Ehmer; Artisans in Hungarian towns on the eve of industrialization, Vera Bácskai; Urban renovation and changes in artisans' activities: the Parisian Fabrique in the Arts et Métiers quarter during the Second Empire, Florence Bourillon; Artisans and the labour markert in Dutch provincial capitals around 1900, Pim Kooij; Index.