[TheForge] Re: historcial blacksmith status in the community

[Mike Spencer]

Jean Tijou -- late 17th c. -- didn't bang out all that ironwork at
Hampton Court and the rebuilt St. Paul's by himself.  He had to be
able to coordinate the work, figure out how to make individual,
difficult pieces and, especially, to talk to, understand and explain
technical craft matters to people like Christopher Wren and Robert
Hooke. So I betcha he was quite literate.

He must have had a lot of hired smiths, ones fully able to execute
all that fancy stuff, but there was little or no reason for them to
read or calculate.

In 1980, I met Richard Quinnell and several of his men.  There is no
reason, certainly, to believe that, in the late 20th c., his men were
illiterate but there was a distinct difference in language, dress and
mannerisms between Dick (with advanced academic qualifications in
biology and an inherited business) and the highly skilled smiths who
worked for him, a difference apparent to leftpondians such as I and so
probably self-evident to native Brits.  Translating that difference
into the conditions of the 17th c. and earlier (viz. pre-enlightenment
or medieval) I'd guess it was the rare smith who got much beyond the
alphabet and simplest arithmetic.


FWIW,
- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^