Medicine: examining urine
The medieval Church
Medieval Surgery
Rural life: the lazy ploughman
Friar playing music
Dante's Divine Comedy
Harvesting acorns
Living and dead Princes
Golden Haggadah
Noah in the Holkham Bible
Apothecary shop
City walls
Lord at supper
Peasants work the land
The Last Judgement
Hundred Years War
Demons fall into Hell
Chronicle of the Black Death
Genesis picture book
Medieval encyclopedia
Sir Gawain & the Green Knight
Peasants' Revolt
Scottish freedom
English cookery manuscript
Few medieval commercial buildings have survived, but we can get a sense of what they might have looked like from the illuminations in manuscripts. This is an illustration of an apothecary shop (a shop selling medicines) from a 14th century French manuscript.
Who lived in medieval towns? At the top of the structure were merchants, lawyers and property owners, who held responsible positions in the community. Below them were craftsmen and traders, and at the bottom of the pile were unskilled workers. Then, as now, towns included a mixture of residential and commercial properties, though often these were one and the same: craftsmen's workshops were often on the ground floor, with the family residence upstairs. In many towns, medieval commercial activities have left their mark on streets with names like Shoe Lane, Pie Corner and Apothecary Street.
Shelfmark: 1977 ff.49v-50