Late medieval and early modern cities are often depicted as cradles of artistic creativity and hotbeds of new material culture. Cities in Renaissance Italy and in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century north-western Europe are the most obvious cases in point. But, how did this come about? Contributors to this volume set out to analyze whether.

Preface; Innovation and creativity in late medieval and early modern European cities: an introduction, Karel Davids and Bert De Munck; The cities of glass: privileges and innovations in early modern Europe, Corine Maitte; Craft guild legislation and woollen production: the Florentine Arte della Lana in the 15th and 16th centuries, Francesco Ammannati; New products and technological innovation in the silk industry of Vicenza in the 15th and 16th centuries, Edoardo Demo; To kill two birds with one stone: keeping immigrants in by granting free burghership in early modern Antwerp, Jan de Meester; The secret perfume: technology and the organization of soap production in northern Italy between the 16th and 18th centuries, Alberto Grandi; Textiles manufacturing, product innovations and transfers of technology in Padua and Venice between the 16th and 18th centuries, Andrea Caracausi; The spatial side of innovation: the local organization of cultural production in the Dutch republic, 1580-1800, Claartje Rasterhoff; Beyond exclusivism: entrance fees for guilds in the early modern Low Countries, c. 1450-1800, Bert De Munck and Karel Davids with the collaboration of Ellen Burm; The coopers’ guilds in Holland, c. 1650-1720: a market logic?, Janneke Tump; The early modern Antwerp coopers’ guild: from a contract-enforcing organization to an empty box?, Raoul De Kerf; The paradox of the Antwerp rose: symbol of decline or token of craftsmanship?, Annelies De Bie; Harbouring urban creativity: the Antwerp Art Academy in the tension between artistic and artisanal training in the late 17th and 18th centuries, Dries Lyna; Innovation in the capital city: central policies, markets and migrant skills in Neapolitan ceramic manufacturing in the 18th century, Alida Clemente; Innovations, growth and mobility in the secondary sector of Trieste in the 18th century, Daniele Andreozzi; Bibliography; Index.