p-travl-guides-msg ­ 9/21/04 Period travel guides. Pilgrimage guides. NOTE: See also the files: travel-msg, p-tourism-art, travel-foods-msg, ships- msg, p-backpacks-msg, horses-msg, med-ships-art, carts-msg, pilgrimages-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 ************************************************************************ Subject: ANST - RE: period travel guides Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 08:42:51 -0500 From: "C. L. Ward" To: Jovian asked: >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? Medieval "travel guides" aren't generally what you'd find today if you go to the "Travel" section of a bookstore. The accounts are much less factual in many cases, and as far as I've seen never are the kind of document that lists "what sights to see". There are a number of more-or-less factual travellers' accounts, and then you also get into medieval geography, which is often largely fictional or based on hearsay. And then there are the "fantastic travels" which I think must descend from the common desire to astound and amaze those folks back home. At the edges of the world people always envisioned strange and often dangerous creatures. For ancient peoples the earth's farthest perimeter was a realm radically different from what they perceived as central and human. The alien qualities of these "edges of the earth" became the basis of a literary tradition that endured throughout antiquity and into the Renaissance, despite the growing challenges of emerging scientific perspectives. This phenomenon is so widespread that a number of books have been written on the subject. In fact, the same phenomenon continues today, providing us the many and varied aliens of science fiction and speculative literature. Some good ones to look at include: VIKING TRAVELS TO BYZANTIUM --------------------------- * Palsson, Hermann and Paul Edwards. Vikings in Russia: Yngvar's Saga and Eymund's Saga. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 1989. Out-of-print, to have Amazon.com do a book search for it go to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0852246234/thevikinganswerl ARABIC SOURCES DESCRIBING THE VIKING WORLD ------------------------------------------ * M. Reinaud, trans. Geography of Abu al-Fida'. Paris. 1848. Describes the Norse ca. early 14th century under the heading "Northern Regions of the World" * Allen, W. E. D., trans. The Poet and the Spae-Wife: An Attempt to Reconstruct Al-Ghazal's Embassy to the Vikings. Dublin: Allen Figgis & Co. 1960. [A translation of the Arabic text describing al-Ghazal's visit to Turgeis, ruler of the Vikings in Ireland ca. 845. This account dates to the early 1200's.] * Al-Mas'udi. Meadows of Gold. trans. A. Sprenger. London. 1941. [Describes the Rus market of Bulghur prior to 947.] * Al-Mas'udi. The Meadows of Gold: The Abbasids. Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone, trans and eds. Kegan Paul International. 1989. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0710302460/thevikinganswerl * Ibn Battuta. The Travels of Ibn Battuta. trans. H.A.R. Gibb. Hakluyt Society 2. Cambridge. 1962. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/812150614X/thevikinganswerl * S. Janicsek. "Ibn Battuta's Journey to Bulghar." Journal Royal Asiatic Society. 1929. pp. 792-800. * Smyser, H. M., trans. "Ibn-Fadlan's Account of the Rus with Some Commentary and Some Allusions to Beowulf." Franciplegius: Medieval and Linguistic Studies in Honor of Francis Peabody Magoun Jr. eds. Jess B. Bessinger and Robert P. Creed. New York: University Press. 1965. pp. 92-119. [A translation of the Arabic text describing ibn-Fadlan's journey among the Rus or Russian Vikings ca. 921. This account dates to the early 1200's.] See also the text, which I have on my webpage at: http://www.vikinganswerlady.org/ibn_fdln.htm FANTASTIC TRAVEL LITERATURE --------------------------- Babcock, William Henry. Legendary Islands of the Atlantic: A Study in Medieval Geography. New York: American Geographical Society. 1922. Out-of-print, to have Amazon look for it: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0836969634/thevikinganswerl Babcock, William Henry. "The So-Called Mythical Islands of the Atlantic in Medieval Maps", Scottish Geographical Magazine 31/32 (1916). Flint, Valerie I. J. The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher Columbus. Princeton University Press. 1992. To buy from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691056811/thevikinganswerl Fuson, Robert H. Legendary Islands of the Ocean Sea. Pineapple Press. 1998. To buy from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1561640786/thevikinganswerl Harvey, P. D. A. Mappa Mundi: The Hereford World Map. British Library Studies in Medieval Culture. University of Toronto Press. 1996. To buy from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802009859/thevikinganswerl [This map is a great example of medieval mythical geography and how it intermixes with the knowledge of the real world.] Jakobsen, Alfred. "Geographical Literature." in: Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia. Phillip Pulsiano et al., eds. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 934. New York & London: Garland. 1993. pp. 224-225. Out-of-print, to have Amazon search for it: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0824047877/thevikinganswerl Romm, James S. The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1992. To buy from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691069336/thevikinganswerl Simek, Rudolph. "Elusive Elysia or Which Way to GlĘsisvellir." Sagnaskemmtun: Studies in Honor of Hermann P·lsson on his 65th Birthday. Rudolph Simek et al., eds. Vienna, Cologne & Graz: B–hlau. 1986. pp. 247-275. Out-of-print, to have Amazon look for it: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3205066006/thevikinganswerl Tomasch, Sylvia and Sealy Gilles, eds. Text and Territory: Geographical Imagination in the European Middle Ages. The Middle Ages Series. University of Pennsylvania Press. 1997. To buy from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812216350/thevikinganswerl Westrem, Scott D., ed. Discovering New Worlds: Essays on Medieval Exploration and Imagination. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1436. New York: Garland Publishing. 1991. Out-of-print, to have Amazon look for it: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0815301022/thevikinganswerl ::GUNNORA:: Subject: Re: ANST - RE: period travel guides Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 14:34:12 From: "Eric Jackson" To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org Gerald of Wales wrote a excelent description of his travels through Wales recruiting for one of the crusades. He also wrote about his travels in ireland here are a few links. You can find his books on the web if you are interested in them Ireland http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/geraldwales1.html Wales http://www.llangynfelyn.dabsol.co.uk/dogfennau/disgrifiadau_gerallt.html Owen ap Aeddan....... 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 Edited by Mark S. Harris p-travl-guides-msg 4 of 4