Shoes and Shoemaking in the Renaissance Imagination

• In Event: Materiality in Motion: Material Cultures of Movement

Abstract

Walking has been a focus of much recent work on place and space, yet little attention has been paid to the material conditions of the walking body and particularly the foot in motion. In this paper I address that gap by focusing on the place of the shoe within the cultural imagination of the early modern period. In a three-part study I explore first the shoe as material object in relation to the materiality of motion and the dynamics of early modern preoccupation with fit, fastening and fabric. I then consider the shoe in relation to the important cultural figures of the shoemaker and cobbler, and their journeymen workers. Finally I examine the circulation of shoe and shoemaker within early modern printed media. Taken together these three aspects provide an insight into how shoes and shoemaking shaped the cultural experience of motion in the period.

Author

• Andrew Gordon, University of Aberdeen, King's College