The nail heads were slightly sunk, which was
according to southern customs.
That this shoe really belongs to the period of the crusades is proved
by the numerous horse pictures which have been preserved from that
time; of which we will mention the manuscript of Heinrich von Veldecka
("Eneidt")[4] in the year 1180, which belongs to the most valuable
parts of German history of art.
[Footnote 4: "Wanderungen des Aeneas" (Travels of Aeneas).]
This south European Hunish horseshoe had remained the standard form
during the middle ages and until the thirty years war, at least in
South Germany. The shoe was continually improved, and reached its
highest point of perfection about the time of the "Bauern-krieg"
(Revolution of the Peasants), at a time when, under the leadership of
the Renaissance, the whole art of mechanics, and especially that of
blacksmithing, had taken an extraordinarily great stride (Figs. 20 and
21).
[Illustration: FIG. 20.]
[Illustration: FIG. 21.]
The shoe (Figs. 22 and 23) is found in Franconia, in all places where,
in the sixteenth century, battles had been fought with the rebellious
peasants. We may, therefore, be justified in fixing its origin mainly
from that period, for which also speaks its high perfection of form.
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