Networking know-how: a critical literature review of artisanal knowledge in early modern European cities

Economic historians have acknowledged the importance of the accumulation of craft knowledge and the incremental innovations that it helped to induce in turning Europe from a technological backwater in the thirteenth century to the most technologically advanced part of the world by 1750. Yet though artisanal manufacturing was largely an urban phenomenon in the early modern period, there has not been extensive historiographical focus specifically on how different urban dynamics shaped the production and circulation of craft knowledge. Additionally, those that do explore artisanal knowledge within the urban context often do so through the lens of agglomeration theory which presents a highly generalised understanding of the impact of cities. This critical review brings together the literatures from urban history and the history of science and technology with the intention of developing a more nuanced understanding that emphasises idiosyncrasy and heterogeneity rather than generality in the ways that European cities shaped artisanal knowledge.