History of Bristle Use

• c.1225 - France
  Wright, Thomas. A Volume of Vocabularies. sl.:n.p., 1857, Dictionarius of John de Garland (between 1218-1229)
  "Pictaciarii viles sunt, qui consuunt sotulares veteres, renovando pictacia, et intercucia, et soleas, et inpedias."
  "Allutarii sunt qui faciunt calciamenta de alluta, et prosunt civitati Parisius; qui conservant sibi forumpedias equitibialia et spatulas. Qui alutarii secant cum rasorio vel ansorio corium atramentario denigratum, et consuunt calciamenta cum subula et licino et seta porcina."
  "Cobblers are low class, working only with old shoes, renovating with cloutes, welts, soles, and (entanglements?). Cordwainers make shoes of cordwain, and  in the city of Paris; they preserve the equality and area of the foot-market.(or Cordwainers are those who make shoes with Cordwain, and are (already?) citizens of Paris; and who maintains his own footforms for smoothing and stretching).  Cordwainers cut with razor edges to take care of the leather, blackened with (darkness?), and sew the shoes with a shoemaker's awl, (a twist) and pig's bristles."
• c.1295  - Germany
  "At the beginning of a good life, however, fear is useful.  It is love's gateway.  A punch or an awl makes the hole for the thread with which a shoe is sewed... and a bristle is put on the thread to get it through the hole, but when the thread does bind the shoe, the bristle is out.  So fear leads love, and when love has bound us to God, fear is done away."  "Fragment 43." Meister Eckhart, a Modern Translation. Translated by Raymond B. Blakney.  New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1941, pp. 248.  Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) makes this reference and further cites Franz Pffeiffer. Deutsche Mystiker des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts, II (Leipzig, 1857), pp.235, 18.  Pfieffer quotes Eckhart as saying (line 26-29) "Als diu siule oder �le r�met dem dr�te, daz der dr�t bindet den schuoch unde nigt daz �sen, und asl diu b�rst an dem dr�te tout, daz der dr�t hin durch g�t, unde s� der dr�t ze samene heftet, s� b�rst hie �sen." (In Modern German, B�rst is not specifically "Bristle", but rather "Brush", Borst is "bristle".  However, in Middle High German, B�rst is the neuter gender term for "Bristle" (OED2 entry on Bristle))
• 15th century
  June Swann's description of the Cordwainer's will - which after much digging on my part, I believe refers to "Lystyne lordys verament" (a.1500)  - also known as "A shoemaker's testament" .
• 1598-9
  Bristles are not mentioned in either Thomas Dekker's "The Shoemaker's Holiday" (1598) or Thomas Deloney's The Gentle Craft (1599)
• 1604
  "Great Leather Act of 1604"

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Footwear of the Middle Ages - History of Bristle Use, Copyright � 2001, 2003 I. Marc Carlson.
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