Collegio della Mercanzia

The Collegio della Mercanzia (merchants' guild) is probably the oldest and was certainly the most important guild in the city.  Thus, the ten priors who formed the Priori delle Arte from 1303 always included two from the Collegio della Mercanza, while the other guilds supplied at most one on a rotating basis.   (From 1385, the Collegio del Cambio  had one place on a permanent basis). 

The guild exercised judicial responsibility in commercial cases, and its administrative functions included the regulation of weights and measures.  It owned and administered the Ospedale di Sant’ Egidio in what is now Corso Garibaldi, a hospice for the poor.

The guild acquired these prestigious premises in the Palazzo dei Priori in 1390 as payment of a debt owed by the Commune.  The arms of the guild (a griffin on bales of cloth) are to the right of the right portal.

Membership of the Collegio della Mercanzia and the Collegio del Cambio was originally confined to the Popolo.  However, Braccio Fortebracci opened them up to nobles when he assumed control of Perugia in 1414, providing this faction with an important route to government.

The Collegio della Mercanzia took over the Cappella di San Bernardino in the Duomo in 1515.

Sala dell' Udienza

The vaulted audience chamber is entirely faced in wooden panels that have recently been restored.  The Collegio bought the carved the benches (1462) by Costanzo di Mattiolo from the Collegio dei Notai in 1865. 

Defendants and witnesses in commercial cases gave their evidence from the pulpit on the left.

A gilded wooden relief of the arms of the guild can be seen in the lunette on the right wall.

[Gilded figures of the Cardinal Virtues - where??]

Sala dell' Archivio.

This archive preserves the guild’s decorated registers of members for the years 1323, 1356 and 1599.  The register of 1356 is illuminated by the important Perugian miniaturist Matteo di Ser Cambio.

Return to Walk I.