Thepigache, also knownby other names, was a kind ofshoe with a sharp upturned point at the toes thatbecame popular inWestern Europe during theRomanesque Period. The same name is also sometimes applied to earlier similarByzantine footwear.

TheEnglish namepigache wasborrowed fromFrench, where the name was originally used for a kind ofhoe and as ahunting term for awild boarhoofprint longer on one side than the other.^[2] It appeared inMedieval Latin aspigacia^[3][4] andpigatia.^[5] The pigache is also known as thepigage,^[6]pulley shoe,^[7][8]pulley toe,^[1] orpulley-toe shoe.^[9] Less often,Orderic Vitalis's terms of opprobrium are reworked into names:scorpion's tail orram's horn shoe.^[10] The namepigache is also sometimes also applied to earlier pointedByzantine footwear from as early as the 5th century.^[11] It is also simply glossed as apointed-toe shoe^[12] and sometimes conflated with the laterpoulaine.

The pigache had a pointed and curved toe,^[6] whichOrderic Vitalis compared with the tail of ascorpion^[4] (quasi caudas scorpionum).^[3] The shoes were sometimes stuffed to make the extension firmer and more erect. The end of the toe was sometimes adorned with a small bell.^[6] The points of pigaches were, however, more moderate in length than the laterpoulaines^[4] which spread fromPoland in the 14th century.

The pigache was worn in the late 11th^[12] and early 12th century^[6] and excited the ridicule of poets and historians and the censure of clergy^[4] to the point it is sometimes described as "notorious".^[8]St Anselm banned its use byEnglish clerics at the1102 Synod of Westminster, alongside enacting theGregorian Reform and prohibitingslavery,sodomy,clerical marriage, and the inheritance ofbenefices and other forms ofsimony.^[13] As a returningpapal legate, the former professorRobert de Courson banned other faculty of theUniversity of Paris from wearing them in August 1215.^[14] The same year, theFourth Lateran Council also banned them forCatholicclergy.^[15][16]Orderic Vitalis blamed the creation of the pigache onFulk ofAnjou^[7] (1043–1109), claiming he used it to disguise the deformity of hisbunions^[4][17][3] from his young brideBertrade in 1089.^[18][19] Thefashion historian Ruth Wilcox offers that it may have been a simple adaptation of theNormans'sabatons, which they had extended to a point and turned down in the late 11th century to better hold theirstirrups during battle.^[20]

The pigache became common inEngland underWilliam Rufus(r. 1087–1100), whosecourtier Robert the Horny (Robertus Cornardus)^[17] usedtow to curl the ends of his shoes into the form of aram'shorn^[4] (instar cornu arietis).^[21] Orderic blamed the spread as caused by and contributing to theeffeminate men (effeminati) and "foulcatamites" (foedi catamitae) involved in theroyal courts ofEurope,^[17] while simultaneously describing how most courtiers adopted the fashion to "seek the favors of women with every kind of lewdness".^[22][23]William of Malmesbury similarly condemned the shoes in terms questioning the wearers' masculinity.^[1]Guibert of Nogent, while no less dismissive, associated the style more with women and blamed its origin on footwear exported fromIslamicCordoba, whose residents he separately associated with effeminacy andhomosexualrape.^[1]

After its initial excesses reaching about 2 inches (5 cm) beyond the foot,^[20] the style settled into a more conservative and compact form for a century until theBlack Death and the spread of the still more excessivepoulaine style fromPoland in the mid-14th century.^[12]

• List of shoe styles
• Duckbill shoe
• Pointed shoes
• 1100–1200 in European fashion
• 1200–1300 in European fashion

• Historical footwear
• Byzantine clothing
• Medieval European costume
• Shoes

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