This article features an analysis of the legal regulation of the formation and activity of artisan and trade corporations in the cities of medieval Europe. Based on the findings of an analysis of existing scientific theories, as well as a study of legal and regulatory acts, the author aims to explore the issue of the emergence of cities and workshop organizations in them and reveal their legal essence and content. The relevance of this paper is due to the fact that up until now a sufficiently definitive opinion is yet to be propounded in historical and historical/legal science as to the origin and development of such specific urban institutions as workshops and workshop corporations, with their special legal regulation. The author comes to the conclusion that the formation of cities and workshop organizations reflected the evolution of the economic and social development of medieval society, which was associated with social division of labor. The paper’s major focus is not on the statutory regulation of the work of masters and not on the regulation of workshop craft methods, which can be explained quite logically by the economic need for adapting medieval artisan production to the limited needs and capacity of the local market, and which is the subject of study for the majority of present-day scholars, but issues related to the very organization of the workshop, its position in the system of urban establishments, as well as the legal status of its members.