Travel, Pilgrimage and Social Interaction from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Studies in Medieval History and Culture)

Mobility and travel have always been key characteristics of human societies, having various cultural, social and religious aims and purposes. Travels shaped religions and societies and were a way for people to understand themselves, this world and the transcendent. This book analyses travelling in its social context in ancient and medieval societies. Why did people travel, how did they travel and what kind of communal networks and negotiations were inherent in their travels? Travel was not only the privilege of the wealthy or the male, but people from all social groups, genders and physical abilities travelled. Their reasons to travel varied from profane to sacred, but often these two were intermingled in the reasons for travelling. The chapters cover a long chronology from Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages, offering the reader insights into the developments and continuities of travel and pilgrimage as a phenomenon of vital importance.--Page i Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 List of figures 8 List of maps 9 Preface 10 Chapter 1 Introduction: travelling, religion, and society from Antiquity to the Middle Ages 12 Notes 20 Bibliography 22 Chapter 2 Pilgrimage, mobile behaviours and the creation of religious place in early Roman Latium 26 Introduction 26 Towards a definition of ancient pilgrimage 27 Producing religious place in Republican Italy 30 Celebrating the cult of Diana Nemorensis 33 Into the woods at Pantanacci, Lanuvium 38 Conclusions 41 Notes 42 Bibliography 43 Chapter 3 The meaning of roads: a reinterpretation of the Roman Empire 48 Introduction 48 Roads and Roman power: A geography of Empire 49 The state as a distributed network of power 50 Roads and territory 51 Janus, coins, and bridges in the provinces 53 The Viae Domitiana and Traiana: Roads, bridges and arches in Italy 56 Roads, communities and the state 58 Roads and time – Vetustate 60 Experience, agency and interaction 61 Notes 63 Bibliography 67 Chapter 4 The sacred travel of Valesius’ family: children and the liminal stage 75 Introduction 75 Authors and their approaches 76 The story of Valesius 77 Omens and portents 78 Travel through Tiber to Tarentum 79 The cult place at Terentum 80 The role of the children 81 The legend and its implications: Interaction, experience, and agency 82 Notes 83 Bibliography 86 Chapter 5 When kings and gods meet: agency and experience in sacred travel from Alexander the Great to Caracalla 89 Introduction 89 Agency and visiting the tombs of Trojan heroes and Cyrus the Great 91 The ‘Roman Alexanders’ encounter their divine heroes 93 Agency and given motivations for oracular visits 96 Experiencing blessed oracular visits and the power of the gods 99 The visitor’s experience and negative character development 101 Conclusions 102 Notes 103 Bibliography 107 Chapter 6 Roman Imperial family on the road: power and interaction in the Roman East during the Antonine Era 111 Introduction 111 An imperial wedding at Ephesus 113 Children at military camps 116 An imperial family on tour in the East 119 Conclusion 124 Notes 125 Bibliography 129 Chapter 7 Pilgrimage in Pausanias 133 Introduction 133 Leaving and arriving – travel or not? 134 Local practices and local travel 135 Intraregional and interregional shrines 137 The great past of Pausanias: the Panhellenic rituals 139 Conclusions I: Pausanias the observer 141 Conclusions II: Pausanias the nostalgic pilgrim 144 Notes 145 Bibliography 148 Chapter 8 Pilgrim’s devotion? Christian graffiti from Antiquity to the Middle Ages 152 Introduction 152 Vatican City, St. Peter’s Memory (Italy) 153 Rome, Via Appia, San Sebastiano (Italy) 156 Trier, Liebfrauenkirche (Germany) 159 Monte Sant'Angelo (Monte Gargano), San Michele (Italy) 160 Reichenau-Niederzell, Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Altar Stone (Germany) 163 Sankt Gallen, Liber Memorialis (Switzerland) 165 Conclusion 166 Notes 168 Bibliography 170 Chapter 9 The rise of St. James’ cult and the concept of pilgrimage 176 Introduction 176 Peregrinus and peregrinatio. Concepts in the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages 176 The rising of St. James’s cult 178 The pilgrimage to St. James in its central period: forms and models 181 Conclusion: Forms of dissemination and transformation in the late Middle Ages 186 Notes 189 Bibliography 190 Chapter 10 Pedes habent et non ambulabunt: mobility impairment in Merovingian Gaul 194 Introduction: Continuity, change and ... disabilities 194 Mobility impairment: What to study and how to study it? 195 The Vita Boniti: Donning the cap of literary and philological analysis 200 Aetiology and symptoms of mobility impairment 201 Social realities, attitudes and reactions 202 Conclusions 204 Notes 206 Bibliography 213 Chapter 11 Sacralizing the journey: liturgies of travel and pilgrimage before the Crusades 216 Introduction 216 Rites for travelers 217 Rites for pilgrims 221 Epilogue: Crusade as travel and pilgrimage 227 Notes 229 Bibliography 233 Chapter 12 ‘Not all those who wander are lost’: saintly travellers and their companions in medieval Scandinavia 237 Introduction 237 The sources and a historical perspective 238 Destinations and purpose of travel 240 Companions on the journey – interactions and social standing 246 Conclusions 251 Notes 252 Bibliography 255 Chapter 13 ‘The wagon rests in winter, the sleigh in summer, the horse never’: practices of interurban travelling on horseback from Antiquity to the Middle Ages 259 Introduction: Of hooves, heels and wheels 259 The horse as means of transport in the Roman period 260 Minding the gap between two periods: Travelling on horseback in the Early Middle Ages 264 The ‘equestrian turn’: Interurban equestrian travelling from the 11th to the 15th century 266 Excursus: Investigating the account books of the city of Luxembourg (1388–1500) 267 Messengers and envoys: Urban functionaries on horseback 269 Democratising equestrian traffic 271 Travel horses in literature 272 Conclusions: Towards a ‘centaurised’ mobility 273 Notes 274 Bibliography 279 Chapter 14 Entertaining and educating the audience at home: eye-witnessing in late medieval pilgrimage reports 281 Introduction 281 Eye-witnessing and Felix Fabri’s Evagatorium 283 Eye-witnessing holy places and confirming salvation history 285 Eye-witnessing and curiosity 287 Feigned eye-witnessing (in order to explain the world) 290 Eye-witnessing within Fabri’s pilgrimage narratives and their audiences 292 Conclusion 295 Notes 296 Bibliography 300 Chapter 15 An indigenous lord in the Spanish royal court: the transatlantic voyage of Don Pedrode Henao, Cacique of Ipiales 306 Introduction 306 The cacique 307 The voyage 309 Don Pedro representing his people 312 Living in between 315 Conclusions 318 Notes 320 Bibliography 322 Index 324