pilgrimages-msg - 10/24/07 Medieval pilgrimages. References. NOTE: See also the files: relics-msg, Relics-fr-all-art, casting-msg, saints-msg, crusades-msg, pilgrm-badges-msg, Saints-Lives-art, indulgences-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 06:48:04 EDT From: WOLFMOMSCA at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Food for Pilgrimage I don't know if this volume would contain much in the way of actual food descriptions, but it is a new translation of the Iter Sancti Jacobi and the Liber Sancti Jacobi. It is titled The Pilgrim's Guide to Santiago de Compostella, published by Italica Press and written by William Melczer. The ISBN is 0-934977-25-9. Wolfmother From: "Karyn Schmidt" <karyn at rconnect.com> Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Pilgrimage Badge Pictures? Date: 12 Sep 1998 22:30:09 GMT Fvigil <fvigil at aol.com> wrote in article > Can anyone recommend some sources showing a variety of pilgrimage badges? You want some steenking badges.... F.E. Halliday. Chaucer and his world. NY, Viking, 1968, page 112, has two -- a bell and a pair of open hands. Derek Brewer. Chaucer and his World. NY, Dodd, Mead, 1978, page 202 has three -- a head (of Becket) a head contained in a ring, and something like a buckle, and page 203 shows one with two figures in a frame. Alan Kendall. Medieval Pilgrims. (Putnam Documentary History Series) NY, G.P.Putnam's Sons, 1970, page 113 has a very clear line drawing showing Becket's head in a round frame. The frontispiece shows a painting of a pilgrim wearing a shell on his hat. I recommend this book as an introduction to the phenomenon of pilgrimage. It's loaded with pictures. There's a start for you. Kudrun ?e Pilegrim Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 11:57:12 -0500 From: Margritte <margritt at mindspring.com> To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu Subject: RE: looking for info on woodcuts I have to admit that when I did my blocks, I used linoleum rather than wood. I was trying to replicate the prints that were often made at or near pilgrims' shrines, especially in the later part of the Middle Ages. Small pieces of paper with an imprint of the local saint were sold as souvenirs. -Margritte Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 12:25:23 -0700 From: "David Dendy" <ddendy at silk.net> Subject: SC - Drinking Water I have observed the discussion about whether people in the middle ages drank water, but I haven't followed it very closely, as the absurdity of suggesting otherwise is obvious to anyone who has actually read much in the documents of the time. However, I had the discussion in mind when I was re-reading a favourite book, entitited FRIAR FELIX AT LARGE by H.F.M. Prescott, which is an description of the pilgrimages to Jesusalem in 1480 and 1483 by a German-Swiss friar. This is based on Friar Felix's own lengthy account of his travels. It is obvious from what Friar Felix has to say that water is the usual drink of the ordinary people who made up the mass of pilgrims, though the noble and rich may have drunk mostly wine (thinned with water, however -- the pilgrim manuals warn west Europeans not to drink the strong wines of Cyprus straight: "drunk neat it will burn up the entrails, therefore dilute it with anything up to four quarts of water." [p. 45]). The pilgrim's bottle (which he carried along with his scrip) normally contained water for drinking. Wine, particularly in Palestine which was under Saracen control at that time, was carried separately, usually well-hidden in the bottom of bags or boxes, to avoid the disapproval of the Muslims, who were likely to pour it on the ground if they saw it. Friar Felix frequently comments on the flavour of various streams and wells they stopped at on their way. Some of them he spoke of highly. The water of the Jordan River, however, had little to recommend it except the religious connections: "It was not very pleasant to drink, being warm, and as muddy as a swamp." [p. 157] The importance of water for drinking may be seen in what happened, on the voyage to the Holy Land, when contrary winds kept the ship out of port. "Water ran short; the sailors now could sell any that was not foul, 'albeit it was lukewarm, whitish, and discoloured,' at a higher price than wine. Soon 'even putrid stinking water was precious and the captain and all the pilots were scared that we should run out even of . . . that.' No water at all could be spared for the beasts; and Felix watched them with pity as they licked the dew from the ship's timbers." [p. 58-59] If we want to know the proportions used by the relatively well-off pilgrim, we might look at the instructions in manuals for pilgrims proivisioning themselves at Venice before the voyage: they should buy three barrels, two for wine and one for water. "The best water for keeping is to drawn at St. Nicholas, and when that is used fill the barrel again at any port of call." [p. 45] (Keep this in mind -- it suggest that the wine was supposed to last the entire voyage, while the water would be replenished repeatedly.) Incidentally, water was the requisite drink during fasts, particularly the more solemn ones such as Good Friday, when bread and water were enjoined (if you were well enough off, though, no great hardship ensued -- the Duc de Berri devotedly stuck to bread and water on fast days, but it was gingerbread and spiced water!) Yours aquatically, Francesco Sirene David Dendy / ddendy at silk.net partner in Francesco Sirene, Spicer / sirene at silk.net Visit our Website at http://www.silk.net/sirene/ From: noramunro at aol.comclutter (Alianora Munro) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Date: 19 Feb 2001 05:35:01 GMT In article <3A90A46E.B3A3A7F at mediaone.net>, Tetsubo <tetsubo at mediaone.net> writes: >My girlfriend posed a question that I have not be able to answer. She >has read that scallop shells were carried by pilgrims on their way to >shrines. She would like to know why the scallop shell is associated with >pilgrimmages. Any idea why? My thanks. The scallop shell is specifically associated with the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela (St James the Greater, in NW Spain), for the simple reason that the site is near the seashore, and the scallop shells wash up on the beach, and make a convenient token as sign that one has been there. Palms from Jerusalem were used in a similar way; indeed nearly every shrine had its particular marker. Sometimes these were cast in lead or potmetal and available for sale near the shrine. As one who has made the pilgrimage to St Andrews, I wear a saltire badge on my hood. At some point it became customary to wear pilgrimage badges *on the way to* the shrine as well as on the way home, as a sign that one was undertaking the worthy journey, and possibly also to discourage highwaymen (the area around Santiago was notorious for the Basque bandits that attacked travellers). Sometimes the badges were discarded on the way home (or at home) as a thank-offering to the saint for a safe trip. Quite a bit has been written on the Camino de Santiago recently (including something by Shirley Maclaine -- argh), but if you can track it down, there is a surviving mediaeval "tourist guide" to the journey by Aimery Picaud, who describes the sights along a couple of possible routes from Paris to Santiago, and is wonderful reading. Regards, Alianora Munro, Bright Hills, Atlantia From: "Brian L. Rygg/Brendan Pilgrim" <rygbee at hotmail.com> Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Scallops and Pilgrims Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 00:23:23 -0700 Tetsubo wrote: > My girlfriend posed a question that I have not be able to answer. She > has read that scallop shells were carried by pilgrims on their way to > shrines. She would like to know why the scallop shell is associated with > pilgrimmages. Any idea why? My thanks. The scallop shell was originally a symbol of having _completed_ a pilgrimage -- specifically, it was a souvenir of the pilgrimage to Santiago (Saint James) de Compostello, in Spain, one of the most famous/popular Medieval pilgrimages. (Even today, it's a popular religious/historic pilgrimage.) [James the Apostle purportedly travelled to Spain after the crucifixion. ] *Why* the scallop shell was a symbol of that particular pilgrimage, I don't know. I've read _one_ source claiming that lepers who trekked there in the Middle Ages ate seafood from the Compostello bay and were cured. But it certainly wasn't only the sick who made that trip. Another story has it that James was beheaded by Herod, and his followers took his *remains* to Spain. Saint James saved a bridegroom whose horse ended up in the ocean off the coast, and both horse and rider came out covered with scallops. Perhaps it was just a matter of "See, I went all that way -- I've got a shell that's not from around here to prove it." Similarly, palm leaves were a souvenir of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which is why a pilgrim might also be called a palmer. According to a discussion on the Conchologists of America List (I am *not* making that up), the shell -- or a similar one -- became a symbol of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, too. To add to the confusion, St. James was apparently a Patron Saint of the Crusades, and Santiago de Compostello was a de rigeur stop on the way to the Crusades . . . and/or an increasingly popular pilgrimage destination during the Crusades when *non*-Crusaders couldn't _get_ to Jerusalem. I hadn't before heard of the pilgrim badge being worn until the trip back, but I guess I can see it as a way of saying, "Yes, I know I'm a stranger, but I'm not in your lands for any foul purpose. See? I'm on a pilgrimage." At any rate, the scallop shell eventually were associated with pilgrimages and pilgrims in general, and the escallop became a charge in heraldry as far back as the time of Henry III of England. As a badge or default position in heraldry, by-the-by, the scallop shell is depicted with the hinge *up*. Modern tastes (whether influenced by or exemplified by the Shell Oil symbol, I don't know which) tend to put the hinge down. (Taken as a whole, SCA devices show their modern creation in that regard -- they seem to have their escallops inverted more often than not.) In a related note, now that Prince William of England has officially taken up his arms as Heir to the Prince of Wales (who in turn is heir to the throne), the shield of course has a "label" -- the charge that looks a little like a capital E turned on its side so that the "prongs" are pointed down, traditionally used as a cadency mark for the first son. (The lion & unicorn supporters, and the lion on the crown crest, also have that label, looking rather like a collar.) What's different in this case is that the white label, each of the four times it appears on the full achievement of arms, is charged with a red escallop on the center prong. It's a tribute to his mother, Diana; the red shells have apparently been featured on the Spencer arms since the 16th century. Brendan Pilgrim http://come.to/your.pilgrim From: noramunro at aol.comclutter (Alianora Munro) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Date: 19 Feb 2001 15:52:14 GMT Subject: Re: Scallops and Pilgrims bronwynmgn at aol.comnospam (Bronwynmgn) writes: >noramunro at aol.comclutter (Alianora Munro) writes: >>As one who has made the pilgrimage to St Andrews, I wear a >>saltire badge on my hood. > >Yes, I have a scallop shell for Compostela - a real one found and drilled by >a friend of mine - as well as badges for St. Werburga and St Thomas of >Canterbury. Heh, that wasn't quite my meaning -- which I admit wasn't precisely transparent. My modern self made the trip to St Andrews (for my PhD studies), where I lived just across the street from the cathedral ruins for three years. During a brief exhibition of pilgrimage badges at the local museum I was able to buy a reproduction of a 14th-C badge, and so I wear it on my hood at events. It's a particular quirk of mine that Alianora the mediaeval lady doesn't wear pilgrimage badges for places the 20th/21st-C person hasn't visited, too. Hence, no scallop shell (though I probably have dozens collected from beaches elsewhere), no veronica (Rome), no Jerusalem cross, and so on. Visiting pilgrimage sites (or making plans to) is one of my ways of making contact with the real Middle Ages and the spirituality which was one of the hallmarks of European culture during that time, and which is so profoundly different from modern beliefs. One of the things I'm saving up for *is* a trip to Santiago down the of the old pilgrimage roads. Incidentally, the French name for scallops is still "coquilles Saint-Jacques" -- St James' cockles. :-) >There is one more I really want, but I have to look it up again - >it's one of the Marion shrines, I believe in Norfolk - the one where a >reconstruction (supposedly) of Mary's home was built. Sounds like one of the Loreto shrines; there was one in Scotland, in Midlothian, and several on the continent, as well. Alianora Munro, Bright Hills, Atlantia From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcmann4 at earthlink.net> Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Scallops and Pilgrims Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 22:15:12 GMT Bronwynmgn wrote: > it's one of the Marion shrines, I believe in Norfolk - the one where a > reconstruction (supposedly) of Mary's home was built. > > Brangwayna Morgan Might that be Walsingham? They have a website at: http://www.walsingham.org.uk/ -- Lady Brighid ni Chiarain (mka Robin Carroll-Mann) Barony of Settmour Swamp, East From: clevin at ripco.com (Craig Levin) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Scallops and Pilgrims Date: 20 Feb 2001 22:11:24 GMT Organization: Ripco Internet, Chicago Brian L. Rygg/Brendan Pilgrim <rygbee AT montana DOT Sea Oh! Em> wrote: > According to a discussion on the Conchologists of America List (I am >*not* making that up), the shell -- or a similar one -- became a symbol of >a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, too. To add to the confusion, St. James was >apparently a Patron Saint of the Crusades, and Santiago de Compostello was a >de rigeur stop on the way to the Crusades . . . and/or an increasingly >popular pilgrimage destination during the Crusades when *non*-Crusaders >couldn't _get_ to Jerusalem. Santiago became a patron saint of Crusaders because of the Reconquista, which sometimes got the same attention as the at- tempt to sustain a Christian hold on the Holy Land. The Reconquista was seen, to some extent, as a crusade that was nearby (for people in England and France) and lucrative (PoW ransoms, plunder, and so on). Pedro (Never been up to Santiago de Compostella, but I have been to Koeln (allegedly has relics of the Three Wise Men) and Jerusalem-palm and Jerusalem cross aside, what else could I wear?) -- clevin at rci.ripco.com Craig Levin Subject: ANST - Period Travel Guides Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 19:40:42 -0400 From: fitzmorgan at cs.com To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org > I assume that people wrote "travel guides" during the Middle Ages and > Renaissance. Have any survived? Where can they be found? What do they > cover? > > Jovian Look for "The Pilgrims Guide To Santiago De Compostela" Written in , I think, the 12th Century. and translated by William Melczer. Italica Press, INC. ISBN 0-934977-25-9 for $17.50 if it's still in print. This is a travel guide for pilgrims telling of dangers to avoid and sites to see on your pilgrimage. It tells which rivers you can safely drink from and which are unsafe. It says some rude things about the Basque. And tells short stories about the many Saints who's shrines you will see on the way. It's well worth reading. Robert Fitzmorgan Barony of Northkeep Subject: ANST - Re: Period Travel Guides Date: Tue, 01 May 2001 22:25:53 -0500 From: "Nathan Jones" <bigbeartx at msn.com> To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org >Scot and Domino Eddy wrote: >>I assume that people wrote "travel guides" during the Middle Ages and >>Renaissance. Have any survived? Where can they be found? What do they >>cover? >There's one written on pilgrimage to Compostella. 15th Century? >- --Perronnelle Perronnelle is right. The book she is probably referring to is the Codex Calixtinus, written in the 12th century, here are some notes about it. From the liner notes of "The Way of the Pilgrim: Medieval Songs of Travel" by The Toronto Consort: "The route to Santiago was well enough travelled to occasion a popular 'pilgrim's guide,' the earliest copy of which is found in the cathedral archival library in Santiago in a manuscript known as the Codex Calixtinus. The codex is a five-part compilation containing liturgies, accounts of miracles, a description of how the body of St. James was "translated" to Compostela, as well as the 'Pilgrim Guide.' The guide describes towns and shrines which could be visited en route to Santiago, and includes such practical information as warnings about unsafe water and extortionist ferrymen, and recommendations of friendly towns and where good wine is to be had. The last chapter is entitled 'How Pilgrims of Saint James are to be Received." [...] Then follow cautionary tales of devine punishment visited on people or towns who wwere inhospitable to pilgrims, including one French villiage in which a thousand houses were burnt because two pilgrims had been refused accommodation. Clearly the attraction of pilgrimages, by which certain towns and churches profited so much, depended on the safety and hospitality of the towns en route." Here are some links that talk about the Codex Calixtinus: http://personal.readysoft.es/oborras/csantiago/codex.htm This site seems to contain a wonderfully organized online v ersion of the codex in modern Spanish. It does have the 5th book of the codex, which is the travelogue, in English, but only transcribed up to chapter five. The English text is from William Melczer's book _The Pilgrim's Guide to Santiago De Compostela_. Here is a link to the English portion. http://personal.readysoft.es/oborras/csantiago/book5.htm _The Pilgrim's Guide to Santiago De Compostela_ by William Melczer. The 5th book of the Codex Calixtinus in English. Haven't seen the book, but it's available from Amazon for $25. It's paperback and coffetable sized. Looks cool. (It would make a great birthday gift for me. Really. I wouldn't say no. June 27th, mark it in your calendars. ) http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Blair/Courses/MUSL242/f98/santiago.htm Has a summary of the codex, but not actual text. Focus is on the music included in the manuscript. http://www.nd.edu/~medvllib/musnot/calix.html Not much info here, but has some pics of the actual codex. Also has links to facimilies of other period documents. http://www.italicapress.com/index82.html This one is an advertisement for a CD that has "an interactive tour of the medieval Pilgrim's Road from France to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. It presents a series of medieval texts relating to the pilgrimage to, shrine of, and cult of St. James, including the twelfth-century Codex Calixtinus, now in the library of the cathedral of Santiago, as well as descriptions and excerpts from travelers in the later Middle Ages and Renaissance. The Road to Compostela also features a Gazetteer of historic places along the Camino, a Dictionary of Saints met along the Road, and a complete Bibliography. It includes a General Map of the Road and 4 interactive detail maps of the route, 12 city maps, 17 plans, and 150 color photos." I thought it was pretty cool, but no way am I going to pay for it or endorsing it's purchase. (However...June 27th....) --Giovanni di Cellini Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 18:27:40 EST From: Devra at aol.com Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 21, Issue 94 To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org > Or maybe the season for going on pilgrimage didn't start till after Lent. Wan that April with his showers sweet The drought of March hath pierced to the root And bathed every vein in swich liquor Of which virtue engendered is the fleur... Than longen folk to go on pilgrimages... Geoffrey Chaucer, the prologue It seems as though the nicer weather was an impetus to travel, and with Easter as a movable feast, the two must have coincided occasionally. Devra Devra Langsam www.poisonpenpress.com Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 20:46:36 -0500 (GMT-05:00) From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcmann4 at earthlink.net> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 21, Issue 94 To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org> -----Original Message----- From: Devra at aol.com Wan that April with his showers sweet The drought of March hath pierced to the root And bathed every vein in swich liquor Of which virtue engendered is the fleur... Than longen folk to go on pilgrimages... Geoffrey Chaucer, the prologue It seems as though the nicer weather was an impetus to travel, and with Easter as a movable feast, the two must have coincided occasionally. Devra ______________________________________________ Some of the lines that you omitted are more specific: Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne... Halfway through Aries is about April 5. I found a website that gives the dates of Easter Sunday in the 14th century: http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/cal/key14.htm (The Canterbury tales were written 1387-1392) Now, halfway through through Aries is about when the pilgrimage season started, and that might well be in Lent. But perhaps these pilgrims headed out a little later in the season. Chaucer says he went to the Tabard, "in that seson on a day". I don't know if there's any detail later on that might narrow down the date. Lady Brighid ni Chiarain Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom <the end> Edited by Mark S. Harris pilgrimages-msg Page 10 of 10