Not just a bootish-peninsula, I am sure that was apparent quickly, I am asking when cartographers confirmed in fact that the peninsula was accurately drawn strikingly like a boot.
Did the boot come first? Or did the people on the peninsula invent the boot to reflect where they live?
Maps as early as 500 BC were detailed enough to resemble a boot.
I can’t necessarily offer an answer here, but I can give you a bound at least. I was able to find this 1703 geography of the Kingdom of Naples that explicitly calls Italy a boot, so “some time before 1703” can be said for sure
Forma una Penisola, à guisa di uno Stivale, fi come l’Italia tutta fù meditata da Strabone, e da altri Geografi di rigo
Machine translated:
It forms a peninsula, like a boot, just as all of Italy was studied by Strabo and other renowned geographers.
I’m fairly sure the Strabo bit means “we’ve known it was this shape since Strabo” rather than “Strabo said it was boot-shaped”
To speculate a little more, I think the style of boot that Italy looks like started off as riding shoes developed in 10th century Iran (heels are good for staying in stirrups, apparently). If that is correct then it can’t be earlier than the 10th century since there weren’t boots that Italy looked like
I wonder when the high enough heel was invented to see the resemblance.
Bet money Pug knows. Real question is, when did a boot, or shoes in general, get stiletto heels?
Not sure about when it was recognized that the Peninsula was a boot, but it was drawn as such in maps derived from 2nd century AD originals, and high heels became popular in the 17th century AD amongst male nobility who wanted to emphasize their height, status, and the resulting fact that they needed to do nothing requiring practical movement.
Ancient Egypt, if memory serves correctly. Butchers used to have essentially platform shoes with heels to avoid putting their feet in pools of blood. It was on QI, so take it with a grain of salt.
Damn, respect. Thanks friend, that’s really cool!
I wonder if Florida or Italy knew first.
People have lived in what is now Italy considerably longer (tens of thousands of years) than in North America and we know there were broad scale maps showing Italy’s boot shape at least 2500 years ago so I would be very surprised to find it was not Italy.
