This painting depicts a shoemaker specialised in calcagnette and zoccoli.

There were calegheri, calzolari or scarpéri (shoemakers), zavatteri (makers of slippers), zoccolai (makers of clogs and calcagnette), pianellai (makers of pianelle, tall sandals), and scarperut (who repaired old shoes for resale).

All these categories of shoemakers were organised in a single guild, under the Scuola dei Calegheri in the Campo San Tomà.

Source: Gli abiti de veneziani di quasi ogni età con diligenza raccolti e dipinti nel secolo XVIII, by Giovanni Grevembroch (1731–1807), which in four volumes contains over six hundred watercolours of how Venetians dressed in the 1700s.

Quadruple Craft

We must also be pleased with a Shoemaker who, having understood that above all other Arts he had set himself the task of writing and painting, protested that he would suffer an insult if something was not said on his behalf.

There is no certain difference between his peers, the Cobblers, the Makers of slippers, and the Shoemakers because they are all subject to a single Gastaldo,¹ to the public Finances,² and to the protection of St. Anianus, whose School³ and Altar are in the Parish of St. Thomas.

The first ones show up where they are called, and these are the old ones, or those unfit for service in the Shops;

The second ones collect discarded things for a small sum of money, in order to repair them and profitably resell them;⁴

The third ones, in one way or another, either at home or elsewhere, get to work, unlike the shoemakers, whose only concern is to fashion new and beautiful shoes.

It was permitted for both the Shoemakers and the Makers of Slippers, being Headmasters and supported by Insignia in their own places,⁵ to sell in the Campo di S. Giovanni in Bragola, as a marketplace, which then in 1292 was moved to San Polo on Wednesdays, and on Saturdays to Piazza di San Marco. The sale of similar goods was also permitted on Saturdays behind the Rialto, towards the Fishmarket, in accordance with the Law of 1334. 22 Augusti. Calegarij non possint vendere in Rivo alto.⁶

If in Nuremberg there was a shoemaker who published three volumes of his poetry in his native tongue, and if among the rare ancient Roman inscriptions the following stands out, why may it not happen one day that some Venetian shoemaker becomes a philosopher and makes himself worthy of a glorious epigraph?

C. ATILIVS. C.F.
IVSTVS.
SVTOR CALIGARIVS
SIBI ET
CORNELIAE EXORAT
VXORI PI.⁷

Translator’s notes

Paragraph breaks added for better readability.

1. The gastaldo was the elected leader of a guild of artisans or merchants, often called a scuola or confraternità (brotherhood). ↩︎
2. The Provveditori alla Giustizia Vecchia oversaw the work of artisans in Venice, and controlled weights, measures, prices and the quality of goods. ↩︎
3. A Venetian scuola could be a charity, a lay religious organisation or a guild. The scuole grandi were major charities recognised by the republic. ↩︎
4. See Scarperut, reseller of used footwear by Gaetano Zompini. ↩︎
5. This means having a proper shop or workshop, with a sign hanging outisde. ↩︎
6. More or less: Cobblers cannot sell at the Rialto. ↩︎
7. Roughly, Caius Atilius, son of Caius, Just, maker of shoes, made this [tomb] for himself and for Cornelia, his beloved and dutiful wife. ↩︎
8. San Aniano d’Alessandria (English: St. Anianus), a cobbler, was an early convert, a trusted companion of St. Mark, and the second patriarch of Alexandria in Egypt. In Venice, he was the patron saint of cobblers, shoemakers and similar. ↩︎

Original Italian text

Related articles

• Gli abiti de veneziani — by Giovanni Grevembroch
• Scarperut — reseller of used footwear — Zompini — Arti #34
• Scuole piccole

Curiosità Veneziane

• Callegheri for more about the guild of shoemakers.

Localities