Peter Stabel is professor of medieval history at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). His research interests cover the social and economic history of the Middle Ages (in Northwest Europe and more recently also the Islamic World). He published on urban craft guilds, on urban space and mercantile infrastructure, on gender and labor markets, and on (the representation of) urbanity in visual sources and pilgrim’s accounts. He is currently finishing a book “A Capital of Fashion. Luxuries, guilds and economic change in late medieval Bruges”. His current research projects include the role court supply and the urbanization process in medieval Europe and the social history of textile manufacture (middle ages and nineteenth century compared).