The Pilgrim Shoe

Redesigning the Medieval Book at the Bodliean

 

·      Where and on what should you write if you seek ‘to do things with words’?

·      Does form always fit function? Does a function only have one form?

·      Is looking more sensuous than reading?

 

The shoe was made from the perspective of a Medieval Cordwainer seeking to attract wealthy customers.  Although it was common practice to decorate shoes by engraving or cutting patterns into leather, other forms of decoration were rare during Medieval times.

 

An imaginative Cordwainer may have considered personalising shoes for specific clients by using text, images, or even a charm for luck.

 

With this in mind I made a Poulaine style shoe with wooden patten  for Geoffrey Chaucers’ character ‘The Lady of Bath’ who may have been attracted by the decorated shoe both as a unique, sensuous status symbol but also as a map with which to find her way from London to Canterbury. Such a shoe might have been admired or found useful by fellow pilgrims en-route, and with a charm for love (from the  Anthology of texts) concealed within the heal, perhaps good fortune and love be found on her pilgrimage.

 

The images and text on the shoe were hand painted with historic place names from London to Canterbury sourced from the Gough Map http://www.goughmap.org/about/