Abstract

According to Diderot's article "Art" in the Encyclopédie, secrecy is frequently related to guilds and refers to monopolizing practices and "routine". It appears therefore as an obstacle to innovation. But may we consider secrecy exclusively in this negative light? Studies on mining and metallurgy provide us with a different perspective, for they show how the protection of secrets from the gaze of outsiders also allowed for technical exchanges between the craftsmen themselves and thus implied a certain measure of technical openness. From this point of view, it seemed interesting to look also at the urban craftsmen's practices, the so-called "Metiers jurés." A micro-historical study of guilds in a small town of mid-eighteenth century France, presented in this essay, shows that things were indeed in a state of flux. On the one hand, the very ritualistic practice of producing a chef d'aeuvre, which included even the temporary confinement of the candidate, was still in existence. Secrecy still formed a part of the qualifying process of urban artisans. On the other hand, both the ritual and the chef d'aeuvre were undergoing change, the ritual developing more slowly than its content. In the process, secrecy tended to become pure dissimulation, allowing in fact the spread of a practice like subcontracting, which was officially prohibited