Fa s h i on a n d Cl ot h i n g i n L a t e M e d i e val Euro p e M o d e u n d K l ei d un g i m E urop a d e s sp ät e n Mit t e lalt e rs
Fashion and Clothing in Late Me d ie va l Euro pe
S chwa be isbn 978-3-7965-2585-8
AbeggSt if t u ng Sch wab e
A b e g g - St if t u ng Sch wab e
S e p a ra tum
Abe gg- Sti ftun g isbn 978-3-905014-40-2
Mod e und Kleidung im E uro pa d e s s pä te n Mittelalter s
Fashion and Clothing in Late Medieval Europe Mode und Kleidung im Europa des späten Mittelalters Herausgegeben von Rainer C. Schwinges und Regula Schorta unter Mitwirkung von Klaus Oschema
Abegg-Stiftung Riggisberg Schwabe Verlag Basel
Publiziert mit Unterstützung des Schweizerischen Nationalfonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Abbildung auf dem Umschlag: Rogier van der Weyden, Werkstatt, Kreuzigung Christi (Abegg-Triptychon), um 1445 (Ausschnitt). Riggisberg, Abegg-Stiftung, Inv. Nr. 14.2.63.
© 2010 Abegg-Stiftung, Riggisberg, und Schwabe AG, Verlag, Basel Umschlaggestaltung: Franziska Schott & Marco Schibig, Bern Gesamtherstellung: Schwabe AG, Druckerei, Muttenz/Basel Printed in Switzerland ISBN 978-3-905014-40-2 (Abegg-Stiftung) ISBN 978-3-7965-2585-8 (Schwabe) www.abegg-stiftung.ch www.schwabe.ch
Contents / Inhaltsverzeichnis
Vorwort . ................................................................ 7
Rainer C. Schwinges / Regula Schorta Fashion and Clothing. A Short Introduction ............ 9
Part I / Teil I Individual Pieces of Clothing Einzelne Gewandelemente June Swann English and European Shoes from 1200 to 1520 ............................................... 15 Rainer Christoph Schwinges Between Gown and Fashion: a Student’s Clothing in the Late Fifteenth Century ......................................... 25 Jutta Zander-Seidel «Haubendämmerung». Frauenkopfbedeckungen zwischen Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit ....... 37
Part II / Teil II Clothing and Fashion from Different Social Levels Soziale Schichtung und ständische Differenzierung Jan Keupp Success through Persistence. The Distinctive Role of Royal Dress in the Middle Ages . ............................................. 87 Amalia Descalzo Lorenzo Les vêtements royaux du monastère Santa María la Real de Huelgas ............................ 97 Margareta Nockert Clothing Found in Scandinavia and Greenland .................................................... 107 Stephan Selzer Adel auf dem Laufsteg. Das Hofgewand um 1500 gezeigt am Beispiel des landgräflich-hessischen Hofes ....................... 115 Frances Pritchard Clothing Worn in Fourteenth-Century London Based on Archaeological Evidence ...................... 131
Katharina Simon-Muscheid Les couvre-chefs au Bas Moyen Âge: marqueurs culturels et insignes politiques ............ 45 Naomi E. A. Tarrant «Cut your Coat to Suit your Cloth»: How a Textile Affects the Cut of a Garment ......... 61
Part III / Teil III Symbolic Aspects of Clothing and Fashion Symbolische Aspekte von Kleidung und Mode
Knut Schulz Produktion und Vertrieb von Textilien. Voraussetzungen, Impulse und Innovationen ........ 69
Eva Schlotheuber Best Clothes and Everyday Attire of Late Medieval Nuns . ...................................... 139 5
Contents / Inhaltsverzeichnis
Maria Hayward Continuity or Change? The Influence of the Liturgical Year on the Wardrobe of Henry VIII .......................... 155 Johannes Pietsch Das Wechselspiel von Körper und Kleidung. Unterschiedliche Konzepte zur Formung der menschlichen Gestalt durch die Kleidung in Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit ....................... 169
Roberta Orsi Landini The Influence of the Medici Style on European Fashion .......................................... 193 Gil Bartholeyns Pour une histoire explicative du vêtement. L’historiographie, le XIIIe siècle social et le XVIe siècle moral ........................................ 209
Authors /Autorinnen und Autoren ...................... 231 Klaus Oschema Amis, favoris, sosies. Le vêtement comme miroir des relations personnelles au Bas Moyen Âge .......................... 181
6
Credits /Abbildungsnachweis ............................. 235 Index / Orts- und Personenregister ...................... 237
Vorwort
Dieses Buch beruht auf den Beiträgen zur gleichnamigen Tagung «Fashion and Clothing in Late Medieval Europe / Mode und Kleidung im Europa des späten Mittelalters», die das Historische Institut der Universität Bern (Abteilung für mittelalterliche Geschichte) in Zusammenarbeit mit der Abegg-Stiftung vom 16. bis 18. November 2006 in Riggisberg (Kt. Bern) durchgeführt hat. Leider ist es nicht möglich gewesen, die Druckfassungen der Referate zur «Kleidung des Kurfürsten Moritz von Sachsen» sowie zu «Bürgerlichen Kleidungswelten» im Themenspektrum von «Sozialer Schichtung und ständischer Differenzierung» zu erhalten. Hingegen liess sich Dr. Jan Keupp (München), der an der Tagung anwesend war und dankenswerterweise einen Bericht darüber verfasst hat1, für einen eigenen Beitrag gewinnen. Die Idee zu Tagung und Buch, entstanden aus langjährigen Interessen in beiden Institutionen, beruht auf dem dabei gewachsenen Bedürfnis, die unterschiedlichen Betrachtungsweisen der Forscherinnen und Forscher aus Textilkunde, Kunstgeschichte und Geschichtswissenschaft kennenzulernen und einander ergänzend zusammenzuführen. Wir hoffen, dass dies ein Stück weit gelungen ist und der Wunsch nach Fortsetzung solch interdisziplinärer Gespräche auch durch dieses Buch in die Forschungslandschaft hineingetragen wird. Viele haben zum Gelingen von Tagung und Buch beigetragen, denen die Herausgeber zu grossem Dank verpflichtet sind: der Abegg-Stiftung selbst unter ihrem Präsidenten Dominik Keller für die grosszügige Aufnahme der Tagungsteilnehmerinnen und Tagungsteilnehmer als Gäste in den Räumen der Stiftung in Riggisberg, dem Max und Elsa Beer-Brawand Fonds an der Universität Bern für die nicht minder grosszügige Unterstützung der Tagung seitens der Universität, dem Bernischen Historischen Museum unter Direktor
Peter Jezler für die textilbetonten Führungen und die Gastfreundschaft, der Abegg-Stiftung noch einmal und dem Schweizerischen Nationalfonds für die Gewährung namhafter Druckkostenzuschüsse. Sehr zu danken ist ferner allen, die von der ersten Planungsphase an mitgeholfen haben, Tagung und Buch entstehen zu lassen: Dr. Anna Jolly, Katharina Müller und Dr. Johannes Pietsch in Riggisberg, Antonia Durrer, Tina Maurer und Dr. Klaus Oschema in Bern, dem Schwabe Verlag (Basel), namentlich dem Inhaber Hans Rudolf Bienz für die freundliche Übernahme der Drucklegung, die ebenso liebenswürdig wie sorgfältig von Marlies Pichler betreut wurde, Franziska Schott und Marco Schibig (Bern) für die Umschlaggestaltung, und nicht zuletzt den Autorinnen und Autoren sowie allen Tagungsteilnehmerinnen und Tagungsteilnehmern für das ausserordentlich grosse Interesse und die Freude an der gemeinsamen Sache. Ihnen allen gebührt herzlicher Dank. Bern, im Dezember 2009
Die Herausgeber
1 Jan Keupp, Tagungsbericht «Fashion and Clothing in Late Medieval Europe / Mode und Kleidung im Europa des späten Mittelalters». 16.11.2006–18.11.2006, Riggisberg bei Bern. In: H-Soz-u-Kult, 8.12.2006, ‹http://hsozkult. geschichte.hu-berlin.de/tagungsberichte/id=1402›.
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Rainer C. Schwinges / Regula Schorta
Fashion and Clothing. A Short Introduction
If one looks up the keyword Mode (fashion) in the «Lexikon des Mittelalters», one learns that the term fashion in its modern sense developed due to a division of the genus in France in the sixteenth century: Le mode from Latin modus still meant manner and kind, measure and rule. The French la mode, however, designated now contemporary clothing, life style, and prevailing taste1. If we take this as a definition, two crucial criteria of fashion are already comprised: The contemporary characteristic of fashion implies a basic variation, the play between change and insistence. Moreover, life style means that the individual also shares the thinking, the emotions, and the attitudes of a collective, of a society or at least of a group of contemporaries. In this sense fashion can manifest itself in various ways, whether in detail or as a complete appearance is rather secondary. It is well known that concepts tend to precede terms. We can only name something which has already been imagined and made visible. Therefore, we can assume that la mode in this meaning must have already existed earlier on, obviously throughout the whole period of the Middle Ages2. Due to their occupation historians, however, are inclined to distinguish between different time periods. It would be simpler, of course, to leave the phenomenon of fashion to the Modern Period or at best to the Renaissance instead of recognising a few precursors of fashion which may well be placed into the fourteenth century. Still today the same view is held salient with the question about the discovery of the Self, about the construction of one’s own person and position in society. Similarly as with the concept of fashion it is believed that these questions can barely be placed into the time before the Renaissance3. Evidence to place both concepts, fashion as well as the ‹Self›, into earlier times can be found consist-
ently in the time of the rise of Europe at the beginning of the twelfth century as Europe expanded on a grand scale on the outside as well as on the inside, as territorialisation and urbanisation took place, as migration helped to make the continent and the Mediterranean Sea accessible, and economic goods and markets diffused in the same way as ideas and ways of thinking, language and other ways of expression. It was a time of great changes, in which the individual – with or without the help of God – defined its place in society anew. And similar changes were to occur later on – time and again – whether in the form of crisis or as innovations4. It is no surprise that even without decided historical analyses classics of the history of fashion and of the sociology of fashion reached precisely into the field of tension between the individual and society5. Thereby, they assigned a dual structure to fashion. Personal distance, on the one hand, and social integration, on the other hand, marked the two poles of this structure. This can be applied to all the different forms of appearance of fashion: intellectual trends, the production of textiles as well as the various ways in which clothes can be worn. Without going into detail, we can observe two main research directions in the historical perspective at the moment: on the one hand, a rather socio-scientific approach that investigates the function of clothing and fashion in the Middle Ages in connection to status and social differences in order to emphasise the social as well as increasingly also the cultural aspects of dress codes and luxury6; on the other hand, an approach which analyses the presentation and representation of the body, including clothes and embellishments, from the point of view of anthropology and cultural studies7. 9
Rainer C. Schwinges / Regula Schorta
If, on the other hand, one looks up the keyword Kleidung (clothing) in the «Lexikon des Mittelalters», one finds a concise overview on male and female dress and individual dress items covering a time span from the Frankish kingdom until fifteenth century Europe8. However, the very first sentence dampens expectations saying that scholars have to rely on written and figurative sources mainly as only a very limi ted number of original profane garments has survived until today. Indeed, textiles survive rarely, and profane dresses even less so. The practical and economic value they represent leads to their being used, and reused again – and if they are finally disposed of, the organic material has only very limited chances of preservation under European soil and climate conditions. Not surprisingly, there is no such publication as a history of medieval dress based on originals; scholars usually have to deal with individual objects or limited groups of garments, the latter often archaeological finds9. Similarly to written sources or artistic depictions, of course also textiles and garments have to be critically questioned with regard to, amongst others, their original intention, preservation context or possible alterations. To investigate and adequately interpret the material remains of a textile garment, however, specific knowledge and techniques are required, mastered only by a
comparatively small number of specialised art historians or archaeologists that often cooperate with textile conservators10. While planning and preparing this conference, we realised that the connection between these material aspects of the culture of fashion – including production and trade of raw materials, objects and textiles – and the socio-historical, cultural, and normative implications as outlined above, has not yet been studied to a desirable degree at least in the German-speaking regions. We further realised that concepts which are strongly material and object oriented do not easily correspond to methodological and theoretical approaches which are rather distant to objects11. It is this view we would like to emphasise in this book, because especially in Riggisberg with the collection and scientific tradition of the Abegg-Stiftung (where the preparing conference took place) we have ideal opportunities to take objects as starting points and to analyse them within the context of questions about the development of fashion and its specific manifestations. Here, among other things, we can address the cardinal question of what constitutes fashion with regard to historical aspects. So we try to approach to it in a triple perspective: to look at first at Individual Pieces of Clothing, then at Clothing and Fashion from different social Levels, and at last at Symbolic Aspects of Clothing and Fashion.
1 See Elisabeth Vavra, Mode, in: Lexikon des Mittelalters VI, Munich/Zurich 1993, cols. 707s. 2 Cf. for instance Max von Boehn, Die Mode. Eine Kulturgeschichte vom Mittelalter bis zum Barock, edited by Ingrid Loschek, Munich 41989; Mary G. Houston, Medieval Costume in England and France, London 1939 (Reprint Mineola N. Y. 1996); François Boucher, Histoire du costume en occident de l’antiquité à nos jours, Paris 1983; Mireille Madou, Le costume civil (Typologie des sources du Moyen Age occidental 47), Turnhout 1986; Harry Kühnel, Mentalitätswandel und Sachkultur. Zur Entstehung der Mode im 14. Jahrhundert, in: Menschen, Dinge und Umwelt in der Geschichte: neue Fragen der Geschichtswissenschaft an die Vergangenheit, edited by Ulf Dirlmeier, Gerhard Fouquet, St. Katharinen 1989, pp. 102–127; Françoise Piponnier,
Le costume et la mode dans la civilisation médiévale, in: Mensch und Objekt im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit. Leben, Alltag, Kultur, Vienna 1990, pp. 365–396; Id., Se vêtir au moyen âge, Paris 1995; Herbert Norris, Medieval Costume and Fashion, Dover 1999; Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Guarderoba medievale. Vesti e società dal XIII al XVI secolo, Bologna 1999; Wiebke Koch-Mertens, Der Mensch und seine Kleider. Teil 1: Die Kulturgeschichte der Mode bis 1900, Düsseldorf/Zurich 2000; Joan Nunn, Fashion in Costume: 1200–2000, London 2000; Erika Thiel, Geschichte des Kostüms: Die europäische Mode von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, Berlin 72000; Tom Tierney, Historic Costume: From Ancient Times to the Renaissance, New York 2003; Jane Bingham, A History of Fashion and Costume (The Medieval World 2), New York 2005.
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Fashion and Clothing. A Short Introduction
3 See Jacob Burckhardt, Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien. Ein Versuch, Stuttgart 1960 (first edition Basel 1860); Camille Bérubé, La connaissance de l’individuel au moyen âge, Montreal/Paris 1964; Colin Morris, The Discovery of the Individual, London 1972; Aaron J. Gurjewitsch, Das Individuum im europäischen Mittelalter, Munich 1994; Jan Aertsen, Andreas Speer (eds), Individuum und Individualität im Mittelalter, Berlin/New York 1996; Richard van Dülmen (ed.), Die Entdeckung des Ich. Die Geschichte der Individualisierung vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart, Cologne 2001; Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezak et al. (eds), L’Individu au moyen âge, Paris 2005. 4 Cf. David Abulafia (ed.), The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. 5, Cambridge 1999; Michael Borgolte, Christen, Juden, Muselmanen. Die Erben der Antike und der Aufstieg des Abendlandes 300 bis 1400, Munich 2006; Wolfdieter Haas, Welt im Wandel. Das Hochmittelalter, Ostfildern 2007; Rainer C. Schwinges, Christian Hesse and Peter Moraw (eds), Europa im späten Mittelalter. Politik – Gesellschaft – Kultur (Historische Zeitschrift, Beiheft 40), Munich 2006. 5 Cf. Georg Simmel, Philosophie der Mode (1905), in: Id., Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 10, Frankfurt on Main 1995, pp. 7–37; Roland Barthes, Système de la mode, Paris 1967; René König, Kleider und Leute. Zur Soziologie der Mode, Frankfurt on Main/Hamburg 1967; Id., Macht und Reiz der Mode. Verständnisvolle Betrachtungen eines Soziologen, Düsseldorf/Vienna 1971; Id., Menschheit auf dem Laufsteg: die Mode im Zivilisationsprozess, edited by Hans Peter Thurn (Schriften René König 6), Opladen 1999. 6 See Liselotte C. Eisenbarth, Kleiderordnungen der deutschen Städte zwischen 1350 und 1700. Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte des deutschen Bürgertums (Göttinger Bausteine zur Geschichtswissenschaft 32), Göttingen/Berlin/Frankfurt on Main 1962; Neithard Bulst, Zum Problem städtischer und territorialer Kleider-, Aufwands- und Luxusgesetzgebung in Deutschland (13. bis Mitte 16. Jahrhundert), in: Renaissance du pouvoir législatif et genèse de l’état, edited by André Gouron, Albert Rigaudière, Montpellier 1988, pp. 29–57; Le Vêtement. Histoire, archéologie et symbolique vestimentaires au Moyen Age (Cahiers du Léopard d’Or), Paris 1989; Martin Dinges, Der «feine Unterschied»: Die soziale Funktion der Kleidung in der höfischen Gesellschaft, in: Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 19 (1992), pp. 49–76; Robert Jütte, Neithard Bulst (eds), Zwischen Sein und Schein. Kleidung und Identität in der ständischen Gesellschaft (Saeculum 44,1), Munich 1993; Alan Hunt, Governance of the Consuming Passions. A History of Sumptuary Law, New York 1996; Wim Blockmans, Antheun Janse (eds), Showing Status: Representations of Social Positions in the Late Middle Ages (Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe 2), Turnhout 1999;
Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Disciplinare il lusso. La legislazione suntuaria in Italia e in Europa tra Medioevo ed Età moderna, Rome 2003; Anne-Kathrin Reich, Kleidung als Spiegelbild sozialer Differenzierung, Hannover 2005. 7 See Georges Vigarello, Le corps redressé. Histoire d’un pouvoir pédagogique, Paris 1978; Gabriele Raudszus, Die Zeichensprache der Kleidung. Untersuchungen zur Symbolik des Gewandes in der deutschen Epik des Mittelalters, Hildesheim/Zurich/New York 1985; Daniel Roche, The culture of clothing. Dress and fashion in the ‹ancien régime›, Cambridge 1994; Martina Henss, Kleidung als Mittel der Körperstilisierung und des persönlichen Ausdrucks. Kleidanalyse auf gestaltpsychologischer Grundlage und didaktische Konsequenzen, Münster 1994; Michel Pastoureau, Des Teufels Tuch. Eine Kulturgeschichte der Streifen und der gestreiften Stoffe, Frankfurt on Main/New York 1995; Odile Blanc, Parades et parures: l’invention du corps de mode à la fin du Moyen Age, Paris 1997; Id., La diversité vestimentaire à la fin du Moyen Age: formation d’un discours de mode?, in: Tejer y vestir de la Antiquedad al Islam, edited by Manuela Marin, Madrid 2001, pp. 181–197; Gundula Wolter, Teufelshörner und Lustäpfel. Modekritik in Wort und Bild 1150–1620, Marburg 2002; Peter von Moos, Das mittelalterliche Kleid als Identitätssymbol und Identifikationsmittel, in: Id. (ed.), Unverwechselbarkeit. Persönliche Identität und Identifikation in der vormodernen Gesellschaft (Norm und Struktur 23), Cologne/Weimar 2004, pp. 123–146; Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, Jean Wirth (eds), Le corps et sa parure – The Body and its Adornment (Micrologus XV), Florence 2007. 8 See Elisabeth Vavra, Kleidung. I. Weltlicher Bereich, in: Lexikon des Mittelalters V, Munich/Zurich 1993, cols. 1198–1201. 9 On groups of objects see for example: Manuel Gómez-Moreno, El panteon real de las Huelgas de Burgos, Madrid 1946; Margareta Nockert, The Högom find and other migration period textiles and costumes in Scandinavia, Umeå 1991 (Högom part 2); Id., Bockstensmannen och hans dräkt (revised and corr. ed.), Varberg 1997; Ilse Fingerlin, Textilund Lederfunde, in: Alpirsbach. Zur Geschichte von Kloster und Stadt, Stuttgart 2001, pp. 715–817; Else Østergaard, Woven into the earth. Textile finds in Norse Greenland, Aarhus 2003; Vestiduras ricas. El monasterio de las Huelgas y su época (1170–1340), Madrid 2004; Paola Marini, Ettore Napiano, Gian Maria Varanini (eds), Cangrande della Scala. La morte e il corredo di un principe nel medioevo europeo, Venice 2004. – On single garments see for example: Agnes Geijer, Anne Marie Franzén, Margareta Nockert, Drottning Margaretas gyllene kjortel i Uppsala domkyrka = The golden gown of Queen Margareta in Uppsala cathedral, Stockholm 21994; Odile Blanc, Le pourpoint de Charles de Blois. Une relique de la fin du Moyen Age, in:
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Bulletin du Centre international d’étude des textiles anciens (CIETA) 74 (1997), pp. 64–82; Karen Christie, Neu entdeckungen im Bernischen Historischen Museum. Der sogenannte Burgunderrock (BHM Inv. 20), in: Waffen- und Kostümkunde 46/2 (2004), pp. 83–92. – No less than 173 preserved garments are included in the catalogue section of Katrin Kania, Konstruktion und Nähtechnik mittelalterlicher weltlicher Kleidung, PhD thesis Bamberg 2008 (in preparation for print). 10 For examples of such cooperation see note 9 above, and: Johannes Pietsch, Karen Stolleis, Kölner Patrizier- und Bürgerkleidung des 17. Jahrhunderts. Die Kostümsammlung Hüpsch im Hessischen Landesmuseum Darmstadt, with
12
a contribution by Nadine Piechatschek, Riggisberg 2008 (Riggisberger Berichte 15); Bettina Niekamp, Agnieszka Woś Jucker, Das Prunkkleid des Kurfürsten Moritz von Sachsen (1521–1553) in der Dresdner Rüstkammer. Dokumentation – Restaurierung – Konservierung, with contributions by Jutta Charlotte von Bloh and Anna Jolly, Riggisberg 2008 (Riggisberger Berichte, 16). 11 But see for example Naomi Tarrant, The Development of Costume, London/Edinburgh 1994; Odile Blanc, Histoire du costume. L’object introuvable, in: Médiévales. Langue, Textes, Histoire 29 (1995), pp. 65–82; Ingrid Loschek, Reclams Mode- und Kostümlexikon, Stuttgart 41999; Lou Taylor, Establishing Dress History, Manchester 2004.
Part I / Teil I Individual Pieces of Clothing Einzelne Gewandelemente
June Swann
English and European Shoes from 1200 to 1520
I gather information on shoes wherever I travel, and find subtle differences in styles and dates between Britain and European countries. The history of a country and its relationship to others is inevitably complex, and it is local events that influence how people feel, and thus how they dress. It seems impossible for any person to understand more than one country, so I continually question why shoe museums, scattered world-wide, and their books on the history of shoes tell one story of ‹the fashionable shoe›, with variations left to folk dress (generally kept separate, as though unrelated to the wider subject). This is a plea for all to study the footwear of your area and relate it to your history. Usually a revolution means a major change of style, often foreshadowed for a year or two. Aggressive styles warn of approaching war. Civil wars are a struggle between two or more styles. As fashion is usually set by the powerful, a new ruler is often enough to mark a change. As a clever ruler ages and stagnates, that too is reflected in dress. Politicians should watch for style changes: unheeded, they foretell a ruler’s downfall. In the Middle Ages wealth and power were closely controlled by the ruler, with subjects expected to conform. The greatest threat was usually the Church: priests wearing different dress must take care not to outshine the king. At the beginning of this period in 1200, Europe, including Scandinavia and Russia, was linked to the Middle East primarily by trade: the north supplied furs to everyone, down to the Caliph in Baghdad and beyond1. Trade round the Mediterranean was linked to the Trans-Saharan routes, while the Hanseatic League spread ideas round the Baltic and North Sea2. There were pilgrimages to holy sites, and the routine journeys that priests made to Rome
for their authorisation (for these journeys of a lifetime, priests often took a long way round). Crusaders went to the Holy Land by various routes from 1095 to the 1250s: the wealth of Byzantium they found so overwhelming that it provoked the unforgivable sack of Constantinople in 1204. So where is the literature on Byzantine influence on our dress and shoes? All these activities exposed travellers to the wide range of styles across Europe and beyond. Thus did the International Gothic style spread, though to determine how much and for how long it influenced footwear needs more cooperation between researchers in other countries – and indeed more shoe researchers in general. Now I present the details, which I divide at 1350 and 1485. 1200–1350
In 1199 England saw a new king come to the throne: John, of the Plantagenet dynasty, which ruled to 1399. His father’s kingdom extended to the Pyrenees, giving England a strong interest in Western Europe. Shoes changed little at first, though there was a greater choice of styles. In general they were unisex turnshoes (that is, made like other garments, inside out and turned), with children’s a small version of adults’; no heel, but double soles became more common. The most important feature was the pointed toe: important because a change of toe-shape involves getting new lasts, the stylised form on which shoes are made. At that time (and until the mid-twentieth century) lasts were of wood, so generally carpenters’ work; the English term ‹lastmaker›, indicating a separate trade, did not appear until 1395. Since the nineteenth century the pointed shape has often been attributed to the Middle East, though it had been worn intermittently from the thirdcentury Roman Empire, through Coptic Egypt, and 15
June Swann
Fig. 1: Two patterns for one-piece wrapround shoes, c. 1200–1350, from Oslo ‹Mindets tomt›.
the Saxons in England onwards. It is now considered more likely to have derived from similar shapes in Gothic architecture, for once a new form is accepted, it normally spreads to all designs. If made too long, the end must be kept out of the line of movement. First, from at least 1100, the toe was outcurved to the side. The most extreme example so far found, on a 1250s wooden statue of St. Olav in Oslo’s «Universitetets Oldsaksammlung», is unique for its date3. English shoe toes were much shorter. The sole was quite elegant, shaped at the waist, saving expensive sole leather and giving a snug fit round the instep. Uppers of cordwain can fit like a glove: the leather, originally goatskin, was at least part alum-tawed (preserved by the mineral, rather than vegetable tanned). The word cordwain, known from 1100 onwards, derived from the city of Cordoba in Spain, which was captured by the Christians in 1236. Was all the expertise really lost then, as has usually been assumed? What is certain is that gradually through the thirteenth century northern Europe changed to using mostly calfskin for shoes, more generally available there than goat. 16
By 1282 cordwain was dearer, and that remained consistent where comparative prices are available, another reason for its decline4. It took a brilliant dye, making jewel-like colours, and was especially famed for its red. If you have wondered why the Virgin Mary is so often depicted (from at least 10005) in red shoes, which have had less pure connotations since at least the nineteenth century, they were simply considered the best. Strong and supple, so the upper pattern can wrap round the foot, it was seamed at the inside waist (fig. 1). That pattern is common, as mass production and large workshops could be found in big towns in England by at least the 1220s, and they should be expected in ports, where footwear is required at short notice, long before that6. The types of shoes include a high cut version, reaching to just below the ankle, front- or side-laced with two or more pairs of holes, reinforced with a facing inside. The top edge dips under the ankle-bone at each side, a feature that lasted to 1485. A lower version had a strap over the instep, fastening with a buckle or the cheaper button, formed by knotting a narrow strip of leather and leaving one wide end to
English and European Shoes from 1200 to 1520
slot through the upper for attachment: much stronger than sewing7. (Such buttons survived on men’s cardigans in stylised form to near the end of the twentieth century.) This shoe was for dress, indoor and summer wear, and became the main style after 1350. Ankle boots (reaching a little above the anklebone) were for work and heavy wear. The most common was an old twelfth-century pattern with three rows of lacing round the leg, now threaded through two or three vertical thongs interwoven up the leg. As depictions of the lace always show it of one colour, it must have been a single long lace, which needed only to be loosened to remove the boot. Alternatively it might lace on the inside leg, like the shoes. Decoration showed the influence of Byzantium in silk embroidery at centre front (the last vestige of an older upper pattern with seam there), and now spreading round the top edge8. The finest examples (of c. 1200) have survived in Bergen, with ingenious varieties of interlacing patterns, and even runic inscriptions. A left foot upper was probably for a woman’s wedding shoe, as it bears the equivalent of Virgil’s Latin omnia vincit amor et (with the remaining phrase nos cedamos amori presumably on the lost right shoe)9. All-over check patterns might be outlined in gold tooling, or similar shaped cut-outs would be cheaper. 1350–1485
By 1350 England was already fighting the Hundred Years War against France; when it ended in 1453, only Calais remained on the continent as an English possession. I begin here because of the enormous impact of the Black Death of 1348–1349, when up to half the population died across Europe. The reaction of those who survived was understandably extreme, perhaps slightly hysterical, expressed in more expensive fashion (possible now with re-distribution of wealth, land, and occupations), but realised especially in the lengthening of the pointed toe (fig. 2). They were called «poulaines» for Poland, or «crackowes», after Krakow, its capital under Kasimir the Great (1333–1370), the beginning of the Polish Golden Age; in the fifteenth century it had become the largest
Fig. 2: Shoes lacing on the inside leg on the cross-legged male figure, the Hansel fountain. Nuremberg, c. 1380. Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum.
country in Europe, extending from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The style starts there c. 1340, and is seen on boots, shoes, and overshoes10, but now the long toe slopes up at the front. To retain the shape, most were stuffed with tow, hygienic moss (revived for insocks in synthetic shoes of the later twentieth century), or scraps of cloth, even including an otherwise useless off-cut of Byzantine silk11. After over fifty years researching shoes, I have found no primary evidence for attaching the long toe to the leg, as drawn in too many nineteenth-century and subsequent books on the history of shoes. Only 17
June Swann
Fig. 3: Poulaine-toed shoe (back of upper missing) and sole. London, second half of the 14th century. Museum of London, A 6622 and A 51.414.
in Higden, the Harleian ms 2261, writing about the 1380s, mentions toes tied to the legs12 (though this is surely too long a gap to be trusted). Perhaps one man somewhere suggested or did it once; in any case, it was never common. Sumptuary laws restricting the length were made mostly in the 1360s13, including Zurich in 1371. Generally there is little evidence that the laws were enforced, with many long-toed shoes, perhaps originally upper-class wear, passed to other wearers and worn until right through the sole to the foot, unfit for wear or repair. I return to the toeshape below. The sole is now a gentle S-curve (the line shown in many fourteenth-century statues, in France, for instance), with quite a narrow waist (fig. 3). With the loss of so many skilled workmen due to the Plague, there are fewer styles: the strap shoe now generally 18
fastens with a buckle. A cheaper version has a pair of straps to lace, using two pairs of holes and leather laces. Leg boots (calf- or knee-high) worn by both sexes fasten with laces or buttons. As the wrapround pattern could not stretch to the extra height of leg, boots are now seamed at the back. While this may be where we expect the seam today (except for trainers), it is not the most sensible position, as stitches there are more likely to break without extra reinforcement, usually in the form of a stiffener or lining, or both. Ankle boots too are now mainly front laced, often over a weatherproof bellows tongue, three pairs of holes for women, slightly higher with five pairs for men. The style continued to the early sixteenth century, and similar boots (with stronger soles) have been
English and European Shoes from 1200 to 1520
Fig. 4: Man’s poulaine-toed side-lace shoe, mid 15th century. Schönenwerd, Bally Schuhmuseum.
worn ever since, but intermittently, as the extra leather required inevitably makes them more expensive than shoes. An alternative style fastens with two buttons; this was popular in the Netherlands. It became the dominant style in the fifteenth century, extended up the leg to knee or even thigh, with the number of buttons increased accordingly. The toe-shape changes in England after the deposition of Richard II in 1399. A rounder toe was more suited to the wars of the times and to the temperament of Henry VI (1422–1461), though he was criticised for looking «like a farmer». Ignoring his preference, the long point returned c. 1440–1470, but now with a narrower sole than the fourteenth-century long toes. Here we see more differences, for the break was less noticeable or non-existent elsewhere. Long
pointed toes, for example, are worn by an armourer on an early-fifteenth-century north German stained glass panel14 and a French sumptuary law prohibited long toes in 1422. A second group of laws for England, elsewhere and the Papal bull were promulgated in the 1460s15. The English civil wars from 1455 between the followers of the pious, farmer-like Henry VI and the young, handsome, future Edward IV (1461–1483) coincide with the struggle between the two styles. One, less extreme than some depicted in manuscript illustrations, is sufficient to support the Papal objection (fig. 4). During these years the Renaissance and rounder toes began in Italy, though the latter are most noticeable even there, as in some other parts of Europe, only in the last quarter of the century16. 19
June Swann
Because of the long toes, the upper pattern for shoes changed to vamp and separate back, with a seam on each side, all of which has continued to our modern shoes (again excluding trainers with multiple seams). The fifteenth century was extravagant with leather, seen in more pull-on boots (often cut very full and baggy): calf, knee, and even thigh high. The latter were generally snug-fitting, achieved with buttons, or made as soled hose. They were not worn by women. Boots and soled hose are now all back seamed. Decoration in this period is truly gothic, with net-like uppers. In the early 1390s the first great English poet, Chaucer, described his Parish Clerk as wearing «Paul’s window carven on his shoes» (‹Paul› being London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral)17; a rose-like design was popular for cut-outs. Sadly, its survival rate was low. Rows of the simpler gothic quatrefoils are found on fourteenth-century shoes from Stockholm and Spain (for instance, in the scene depicting St. Mark by a shoe stall on a painting from Manresa Cathedral18). A fresco in Firenze’s Santa Maria Novella Church shows the Englishman Edward Le Despencer in 1365, his white shoes cut almost into straps over the instep, more suited to the Italian climate than England. His long, pointed, almost horizontal toe must have required some art in walking, to avoid tripping. Overshoes, a separate trade by 1350, are new, and of two main types. The older is a solid platform of cork, leather-covered, descended from the Spanish chapin, known from at least 1247 (and ancient Roman examples)19, hence also common in the Nether lands; these were mostly worn by women. Or the platform may consist of a number of stacked layers of leather, thonged together, which men also wore. Theirs is usually the second type, a two-stilt wooden clog, held on by a leather toe-band or a pair of straps (first seen in the c. 1340 Luttrell Psalter20). Their popularity is probably linked with the shortage of skilled shoemakers after the Black Death. They would be simple for a carpenter to make, until the quantities required turned it into a separate trade of clog- or 20
Fig. 5: Parts of man’s welted shoe (back of upper and part of welt missing), c. 1510, from under 10 Downing Street, London.
patten-maker21. Note that after 1400 the platforms are likely to be built higher at the back (like the twentieth-century wedge heel), and are indeed one of the origins of heels. Overshoes were rarer in Scandinavia, probably because they were impractical on ice and snow: scho lars should always consider climate and terrain, as well as historical events. Also new is the wooden shoe of the Netherlands, very practical there as more of the land was drained. Though the type was later despised in England as ‹Continental› and thus illogically but commonly linked with Catholicism, one c. 1450 Nottingham alabaster carving survives that depicts a stable boy wearing a wooden shoe, before England’s break with Rome in the sixteenth century22.