Travel, Pilgrimage and Social Interaction from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

329 Pages·2019·14.498 MB·English

by  Jenni Kuuliala (editor), Jussi Rantala (editor)

Travel, Pilgrimage and Social Interaction
from Antiquity to the Middle Ages
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.
Jenni Kuuliala is a university researcher at Tampere University, Finland. Her
research interests include hagiography, pilgrimage and the social history of
medicine in the Middle Ages and the early modern period.
Jussi Rantala is a postdoctoral researcher at Tampere University, Finland. His
research concentrates on historiography, identity and power in Classical Antiquity,
particularly in the Roman Empire.
Studies in Medieval History
and Culture
Recent titles include
The Charisma of Distant Places
Travel and Religion in the Early Middle Ages
Courtney Luckhardt
The Death Penalty in Late Medieval Catalonia
Evidence and Signification
Flocel Sabaté
Church, Society and University
The Paris Condemnation of 1241/4
Deborah Grice
The Sense of Smell in the Middle Ages
A Source of Certainty
Katelynn Robinson
Travel, Pilgrimage and Social Interaction from Antiquity
to the Middle Ages
Edited by Jenni Kuuliala and Jussi Rantala
Travel, Pilgrimage and Social
Interaction from Antiquity
to the Middle Ages
Edited by Jenni Kuuliala and
Jussi Rantala
First published 2020
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Jenni Kuuliala and Jussi Rantala;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Jenni Kuuliala and Jussi Rantala to be identified as the authors
of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
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ISBN: 978-0-367-13756-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-02845-8 (ebk)
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Contents
List of figures vii
List of maps viii
Preface ix
1 Introduction: travelling, religion, and society from Antiquity to
the Middle Ages 1
JENNI KUULIALA AND JUSSI RANTALA
2 Pilgrimage, mobile behaviours and the creation of religious
place in early Roman Latium 15
EMMA-JAYNE GRAHAM
3 The meaning of roads: a reinterpretation of the Roman Empire 37
RAY LAURENCE
4 The sacred travel of Valesius’ family: children and
the liminal stage 64
KATARIINA MUSTAKALLIO
5 When kings and gods meet: agency and experience in sacred
travel from Alexander the Great to Caracalla 78
JAAKKOJUHANI PELTONEN
6 Roman Imperial family on the road: power and interaction in
the Roman East during the Antonine Era 100
SANNA JOSKA
7 Pilgrimage in Pausanias 122
JUSSI RANTALA AND VILLE VUOLANTO
vi Contents
 8  Pilgrim’s devotion? Christian graffiti from Antiquity 
to the Middle Ages 141
EVA-MARIA BUTZ AND ALFONS ZETTLER
9 The rise of St. James’ cult and the concept of pilgrimage 165
KLAUS HERBERS
10 Pedes habent et non ambulabunt: mobility impairment in
Merovingian Gaul 183
CHRISTIAN LAES
11 Sacralizing the journey: liturgies of travel and pilgrimage
before the Crusades 205
M. CECILIA GAPOSCHKIN
12 ‘Not all those who wander are lost’: saintly travellers and their
companions in medieval Scandinavia 226
SARA ELLIS NILSSON
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 248
FABIENNE MEIERS
14 Entertaining and educating the audience at home:
eye-witnessing in late medieval pilgrimage reports 270
STEFAN SCHRÖDER
15 An indigenous lord in the Spanish royal court: the transatlantic
voyage of Don Pedro de Henao, Cacique of Ipiales 295
LAURI UUSITALO
Index 313
Figures
8.1 Rome. Old Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, St. Peter’s
Memory, phase d: wall g 143
8.2 Rome. Old Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, St. Peter’s
Memory, graffiti on the plaster of wall g 144
8.3 Rome. Via Appia, S. Sebastiano, Memoria Apostolorum 146
8.4 Rome. Via Appia, S. Sebastiano, Memoria Apostolorum, graffiti 147
8.5 Trier. Early Christian churches 148
8.6 Trier. Early Christian church underneath the actual
Liebfrauenkirche, graffiti II 35 and II 42 149
8.7 Monte Sant’Angelo. S. Michele, groundplan 150
8.8 Monte Sant’Angelo. S. Michele, Gaidemari fecit 151
8.9 Monte Sant’Angelo. S. Michele, graffito of Leo de Bergamo 151
8.10 Monte Sant’Angelo. S. Michele, graffito of Turo peregrinus 152
8.11 Reichenau-Niederzell. St. Peter and Paul, mensa of the main altar
(9th century), graffiti and ‘dipinti’ (in ink) 153
8.12 St. Gallen. Verbrüderungsbuch (Stiftsarchiv Ms. C3B55, p. 6),
graffito of otger eps 154
8.13 St. Gallen. Verbrüderungsbuch (Stiftsarchiv Ms. C3B55, p. 46),
graffito of pertuolt 155
9.1 Inventio; Historia Compostellana, Ms. Univ. Salamanca 2658, f. 14r 167
9.2 Beatus of Liébana, Commentary on the Apocalypse, Cathedral of
Girona, Archive, Ms. 7 169
9.3 Reliqiuary of Charlemagne, Aachen 175
9.4 Künig von Vach (15th century); Herbers, Klaus and
Robert Plötz, ed. 2004 176
Maps
1 The medieval routes of St. James to Santiago de Compostela;
Herbers, Klaus, ed. 1998 171
2 Route of Hieronymus Münzer (1494/95); ed. Klaus Herbers et al.:
Hieronymus Münzer, Itinerarium 177
3 The bishoprics of the three medieval Scandinavian ecclesiastical
provinces 228
Preface
Most of the papers included in this volume were first presented at the confer-
ence On the Road. Travels, Pilgrimages and Social Interaction: Passages from
Antiquity to the Middle Ages VI at the University of Tampere in 2015. Thus, the
editors wish to thank all the participants of the occasion for inspiring presenta-
tions and discussions. The conference was made possible by support from The
Federation of Finnish Learned Societies and the School of Social Sciences and
Humanities at the University of Tampere, to which we also express our gratitude.
Finally, we would like to thank all the other members of the organizing com-
mittee: Sari Katajala-Peltomaa, Christian Krötzl, Katariina Mustakallio, Miikka
Tamminen, Lauri Uusitalo and Ville Vuolanto, as well as all the other people who
efficiently took care of practical issues during the conference.
Jenni Kuuliala and Jussi Rantala