It can be assumed that the fi rst guild organizations in the medieval Cracow were established by settlers from southern Germany and from Silesian towns who started to settle in the city in the second half of the 13th century. The oldest known and preserved law of craft guild dates back to 1377 and it belongs to the guild of furriers of Cracow. There is no doubt that the statutes of the guild are the primary source of knowledge about the functioning of the craft guild as they depict the most important aspects of life of the craft guild community. Their informative value is limited however due to their normative nature. On the other hand, it may be presumed that the modern versions of the guild laws contain provisions equivalent to those that were in force in the Middle Ages. The statute of the guild of painters from 1490 and its modern version of 1581 are a perfect example. Nevertheless, confronting the provisions provided in the statutes with the offi cial reports of court sessions, we can easily come to the conclusion that the life of the community does not always correspond to the model expressed in the guild law.