The Noble College of Merchants is located in Perugia within the original core of the Palazzo dei Priori, in two ground floor rooms opening onto Corso Vannucci. It takes its name from the Merchants’ guild that established its seat in the Palazzo dei Priori from the 1390s.
A rare example of originality and preservation of wooden decoration with inlaid panels of precious woods, with minimal use of gold and color, it reveals northern influences in the use of wood.
The Merchants’ art had among its duties that of resolving disputes between merchants, overseeing weights and measures, and also controlling the administration of the Municipality while safeguarding public liberties. In the early decades of the 15th century, the guild decided to decorate the entire audience hall with an elegant walnut and poplar wood carving probably crafted by foreign artisans. The wall decoration consists almost entirely of quatrefoils within squares made of walnut and poplar wood. The exception is the small pulpit midway along the left wall surmounted by the figures of Prudence, Fortitude, Justice, and Temperance, and the first part of the larger right wall adorned with blind biforas and rich fretwork. In the lunette appears the coat of arms of the merchants’ guild: the griffin of Perugia holding a bale; the bench, in two tiers, was reserved for the consuls of the Merchants’ guild. In front, a counter by the Perugian Costanzo di Mattiolo. In the adjacent archive are kept the splendid Merchants’ Registers dated 1323, 1356, 1599.
Information on the Audience Hall of the Noble College of Merchants
Corso Vannucci, 15
06121 Perugia (Perugia)
0755730366
laura.donini@libero.it
Source: MIBACT
