Abstract
This paper deals with the Chinese custom of foot-binding and its first European description. It can be shown that the Franciscan missionary Odorico da Pordenone (d. 1331) had a clear idea of that practice, based on personal experience, keen observation and curious enquiry. His knowledge of the historical, social and also erotic setting is reconstructed from the text's different versions and fragments. European readers were able to take note of Odorico's widespread travel report in various languages. One of them, Pierre Bersuire in Avignon (d. 1362), interpreted the human feet as a metaphor for the sexual organs and the exotic practice of binding them as a model for European women and the moral abuses of the day.
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