The use of soled socks (see chapter 9.3The Waldenses) and of "Poulaines" (see chapter 9.1 The Franks) continued all over Europe.
FLORENCE
In this city most of the commercial activities, handicraft, manufacture but also the practice of profes- sions such
as doctor, lawyer etc., were organized in the form of guilds that were called "Arti".
There were 21, divided into major, medium and minor.
The shoemakers were part of a one of five medium "Arti"
while the tanners belonged to one of the nine minor "Arti".
Whereas many shop keepers and craftsmen of leather
or skin practiced their trades in wooden shops on the "Ponte vec- chio"
(The old bridge) while the tanners were situated in more suburban areas owing
the odour of the tannery methods.
In fact the rawhides were bated for approximately eight
months using also horse's urine.
At the beginning of the century men and women wore the
"Usatti", a sort of leather boot and the semplicity of their clothes is nostalgically remembered by Dante Alighieri in his Paradiso (XV, 100
- 116)
Judges and lawyers wore the soled socks while in
winter, as well as the "Usatti" they also wore leather shoes that sometimes had a wooden sole.
The poor, in summer
went barefoot and in
winter used clogs worn without socks.
Women wore footwear with very high heels and soles so
that the preachers, always ready to censure the vanities of the fashion, made fun of them for their stilt-like gait even though a certain
justification of this fashion could be given by the state of the city streets, full
of mud and waste waters that ran along the road way.
KINGDOM OF NAPLES AND SICILY They
wore shoes called "Calzari", sandals, "Pianelle" and "Patitelle" with leather, wooden or cork soles and cloth, velvet or
gilded skin uppers called "Auripellium".
A document kept in the archives of Palermo states that Charles the First of Anjou (1226 - 1285) had some sandals with a white
embroidered cross on the uppers.
An ordinance issued in that period reveals the
prices of the shoes; those worn by "Gintilomini et persuni onorati"
(Gentlemen and honourable persons) cost one Tarì (1) and ten grains (2)
while she-goat shoes cost only fifteen grains.
In some contracts that dealt with apprenticeships, the masters
had not only to teach their skills
to their apprentices but also to provide them with board, lodging and "Calciamenta",
the shoes.
ROME In the coronation book of Boniface the Eight (1235 - 1303) a prefect from Rome is mentioned who took part in a papal procession wearing one golden and one red "Zanga" a name that related to an ankle boot in those times.
VENICE A capitulary of the guild of "Calegheri" (shoemakers) dating back to 1221 mentions two types of shoes; the "Calcarios", leather or cloth leggings sometimes with feet and "Stivallos" calf high boots with a wooden sole.
ENGLAND In
1984/85 in Newcastle upon Tyne during excavations along the bank of a river, many leather, cloth and pottery fragments mixed with
dumping materials used in the13th century for draining the swampy river banks
were found.
The leather was very well preserved by the acidic
environment and consists of fragments of uppers and soles of four mo- dels of footwear assembled
using the "Turnshoe Technique" (see chapter n.°4 ), rejected by shoemaker of that
age.
In the Turnshoe Technique of the13th century a skin strip
was placed between the upper and sole that served for proofing the
seam.
The shoe was ankle high, without heels
and the uppers were either joined or made with a single or two pieces of skin.
In the first case the two extremities of the upper were connected with
a " head" lateral seam sewn with a leather string (small triangular pieces completed the shape), in the second case pieced skin
was used to shape the front part of the upper and another piece
the back part.
They were then connected by the cited method; some counterforts were
then sewn into the heels.
NOTES (1) Tarì: gold or silver coin of
Arabic origin used also by the Normans and the Aragoneses.
(2) Grain: silver or copper coin in use in the kingdom of Naples and Sicily.
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