For generations of girls, the fabled glass slippers of the Cinderella story have captured the imagination. Only something so delicate, so unyielding and so spectacular could possibly add a touch of magic to the story.

Yet scholars have often pooh poohed the glass slipper as an accident of language. It's a well-known fact that the Cinderella that we know is based on the Charles Perrault fable that was penned in 1697. In Perrault's tale, Cinderella's slipper is made of fur (vair), which was later mis-translated to glass (verre) in the English versions.

But a recent find in Italy may call that assumption into question.

The artifact: a single, glass-chopine, which was recently discovered in the waterlogged basement of a building on the island of Murano, Italy. The shoe is thought to be the prototype of a set of shoes worn by in France by Catherine di' Medici.

According to the Bata Shoe Musuem, the find has called into question much of what we know about the inspiration behind the classic fairy tale.

The Chopine was worn popularly as an overshoe by women in Europe from the 1400's through 1600s.

It was invented in Turkey, but its use was popularized when it spread through trade routes to Venice, where the stilt-like shoe was a solution to the problem of muddy streets soiling shoes and long skirts, but an impractical one, as women who tried to walk on the stilt-like shoes often needed the assistance of two attendants.

Scholars now think that Catherine di Medici, who eventually became Queen of France and ruled the kingdom as regent for two of her sons, may have considered the glass overshoe when she was looking for ways to impress the French court prior to her marriage to The Duke of Orleans.

Ultimately, scholars believe that she rejected the glass footwear in favor of the novelty of the high-heeled shoe.

Although as a foreigner, Catherine di Medici never quite gained in popularity with her French subjects, she brought many innovations from Italy that have shaped the landscape of French culture. It's quite possible that she also put her mark upon this French fairy tale.