A Companion to Medieval Pilgrimage

Andrew Jotischky is Professor of Medieval History at Royal Holloway University of London. He has published extensively on monasticism, pilgrimage, and religious life in the Crusader States. His most recent book, co-authored with Bernard Hamilton, is Latin and Greek Monasticism in the Crusader States (2020).William J. Purkis is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Birmingham. He is a historian of crusading, pilgrimage, and monasticism, whose publications include Crusading Spirituality in the Holy Land and Iberia, c. 1095–c. 1187 (2008).

Whether traveling to Jerusalem, Rome, Saint James of Compostela, Canterbury, or a small shrine not far from home, the pilgrim remains an iconic figure of medieval Christian travel and devotion. Edited by Andrew Jotischky and William J. Purkis, A Companion to Medieval Pilgrimage presents thirteen wide-ranging essays on various historical elements of--mostly--Christian pilgrimage during the Middle Ages. Overall, the essays in this volume are written in an accessible style for non-specialists, while offering original insights into the history of medieval pilgrimage that should be of interest to experts in the field.[...] A more apt title for this volume might have been A Companion to Christian Medieval Pilgrimage, since, with the exception of the essay on Benjamin of Tudela, all of the other essays deal with Christian travelers and devotional culture. Or the volume might have added essays on Islamic and Byzantine pilgrimages to accompany the contributions on western Christian and Jewish travelers, which would have made the volume a more comprehensive guide to medieval pilgrimage writ large. Still, this book on pilgrimage admirably captures the spirit of the Arc Humanities Press “Companions” series that also includes volumes on medieval crime, sexuality, translation, and queenship among other themes. Individual chapters could readily be assigned to students at both the undergraduate and graduate level, providing them with introductory guides to the subject matter and resources for further research projects. (Each essay comes with a helpful bibliography of primary and secondary sources.) If their goal was to spark further study of medieval pilgrimage among the next generation of scholars, the editors and contributors to this volume are to be especially commended on a job well done.

• List of IllustrationsPart 1. Paradigms and SourcesIntroduction, by Andrew Jotischky and William J. PurkisChapter 1. Aspects of Spirituality in Medieval Christian Pilgrimage, by Andrew JotischkyChapter 2. Writing Pilgrimage, by Michele CampopianoChapter 3. Pilgrimage and the Miraculous, by Philip BoothPart 2. The Status of the PilgrimChapter 4. Pilgrimage and the Liturgy, by M. Cecilia GaposchkinChapter 5. Canon Law and the Pilgrim, by Kirsi SalonenPart 3. The Experience of PilgrimageChapter 6. Women Pilgrims to the Holy Land: From Egeria to Margery Kempe, by Ora LimorChapter 7. Moving Away from the “Historical” Benjamin of Tudela, by Marci FreedmanChapter 8. Pilgrimage and the Extent of the Terra Sancta, by E. J. MylodChapter 9. Materializing Charlemagne’s Iberian Crusade on the Pilgrim Road to Compostela, by William J. PurkisChapter 10. Lithic Holy Relics of Late Medieval Rome, by Grahame MacKenzieChapter 11. Canterbury in the Landscape of European Pilgrimage, by Rachel KoopmansPart 4. HomecomingsChapter 12. Medieval Pilgrim Souvenirs, by Amy Jeffs and Gabriel ByngChapter 13. Imagined Pilgrimage, by Kathryne BeebeIndex