THE ECONOMIC AND MORAL VALUE OF ARTISANSHIP IN ITALY

Abstract

The term artisanship and the resulting craft is steeped in history and is the operational contribution of manual human activity to the development of the first formations of society starting from the earliest civilization in Mesopotamia at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates. One of the first celebrations of artisanship, as Richard Sennett wrote in "The Craftsman", appeared in the Homeric Hymns, particularlythe Hymn to Hephaestus, the patron god of artisans: "Sing, clear-voiced Muse, of Hephaestus famed for inventions.... he taught men glorious crafts throughout the world, men who before used to dwell in caves (here in essence "Plato'scave") …. but now that they have learned crafts".