Renaissance Impostors and Proofs of Identity

Early Modern Europe was teeming with impostors. Identity theft (as in the case of Martin Guerre) was only one form of misrepresentation: royal pretenders, envoys from imaginary lands, religious dissimulators, cross-dressers, false Gypsies - all these were causing deep anxiety, which led authorities to invent increasingly sophisticated means for unmasking deception. From theories about racial characteristics, through branding or distinctive garments, down to permits and passports - such were the weapons in the struggle to attain reliable verification of every person's identity.