Carrying on the line of thought of his earlier publications in Erdélyi Társadalom, the author focuses, actually, on masculinity patterns crystallized in the medieval city. He identifies guild members as par excellence agents of medieval urban masculinity. In the first sub-chapter, in order to denote this particularly complex urban social setting, the term thick city is introduced; then, the emergence of medieval cities is explained on the basis of some interdependent global and macro-structural components of key importance. In the second sub-chapter, the main facts concerning guilds, i.e. associations of merchants and artisans, generally bound by oath, intended to promote the interests of its members, are summed up. The third sub-chapter concentrates on structural homologies and differences between urban masculinity on the one hand, and knightly and clerical masculinities, on the other. It is specified that the habitus and practice of urban citizens are closer to clerics than to knights, because merchants, craftsmen and artisans are able to control their violent impulses, and organise their lives on the bases of rationality, professionalism, and disciplined work. According to the fourth sub-chapter, the spread of clerical masculinity might be interpreted as a result of habitus transfer, mediated by the structural conditions of the thick city. Finally, three habitus types are distinguished: the situationally conditioned plural habitus of the knight, the structurally conditioned homogeneous habitus of the clerics, and the relationally conditioned homogeneous habitus of the urban citizen.
Keywords: Middle Ages, masculinities, city, guilds, habituses
