-
Poulain, Maxime, Mathijs Speecke, Anton Ervynck, Jan Huyghe, Jan Moens, Marissa Ledger, Eva Vermeersch, Lieselotte Desnerck, An Lentacker, Wim Wouters, Wouter van der Meer, Koen Deforce, Toon De Meester, Nicolas Thomas, Marijn Stolk, Ina Vanden Berghe, Maaike Vandorpe, Alejandra Gutiérrez, Peter Vandenabeele, Wim De Clercq, and Bieke Hillewaert. 2025. “At the Apothecary : Life in an International District in 15th-Century Bruges.” MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY 69 (1): 94–139. doi:10.1080/00766097.2025.2504289.
IN 1996, A CESSPIT was uncovered in the backyard of Bruges’ Spanish nation house. The interdisciplinary study of this old rescue excavation sheds new light on life in the city’s international district between the late 14th and early 16th century. The refuse in the cesspit is what is left of several generations of traders, from a well-to-do apothecary, employing alchemical apparatus in the production of pigments, to Spanish traders documented at the site from the 1480s onwards. This mercantile presence is reflected by an unprecedented array of imported goods, foods, and diseases, ranging from Italian, Spanish and Portuguese ceramics, Near-Eastern glass perfume sprinklers and luxurious silks, to olives, rice and an African parasite. These items give a material dimension to the appeal of Bruges for renowned artists such as Jan van Eyck and spark the debate on the cosmopolitan taste of (non-)local merchants in this international hub of trade.