Miscellany
University Library, MS Gg.6.28, f. 52r
England, early fifteenth century
Vellum, 192 x 130 mm (writing space variable), II + 113 + II ff.
This manuscript contains a selection of Anglo-Norman texts. On the right-hand page here is found the beginning of a thirteenth-century itinerary to Jerusalem, translated from an as yet unidentified Latin original. The itinerary conveys factual information about the relative distances and locations of cities and holy places that the pilgrim may visit en route. It is difficult to ascertain whether this was intended as a practical guidebook (an aid in the preparation, or guide for the duration, of a real journey), or as an entertaining guidebook for that other type of late medieval pilgrim – the armchair traveller.
Miscellany
University Library, MS Gg.6.28, f. 52r
England, early fifteenth century
Vellum, 192 x 130 mm (writing space variable), II + 113 + II ff.
This manuscript contains a selection of texts in Anglo-Norman, including Nicholas Bozon’s Le char d’Orgeuil, the anonymous The order of chivalry, La petite philosophie (an encyclopaedic text based, like the Image du monde, on the Latin treatise Imago mundi), two texts relating to Jerusalem, and a French translation of a Latin missive from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Aimaro Monado dei Corbizzi (Florence?, ante 1171–Palestine, 1202) to Pope Innocent III, containing an account of the state of the Holy Land. On this page we find the beginning of a thirteenth-century itinerary to Jerusalem, translated from an as yet unidentified Latin original. The itinerary conveys factual information about the relative distances and locations of cities and holy places that the pilgrim may visit en route. It is difficult to ascertain whether this was intended as a practical guidebook (an aid in the preparation, or guide for the duration, of a real journey), or as an entertaining guidebook for that other type of late medieval pilgrim – the armchair traveller, whose journey of contemplation took place in the mind.
Such itineraries were often accompanied by images. For a sense of the visual representation of the Holy Land and the route there, see the digitisations from the Chronica maiora of Matthew Paris (Corpus Christi College, MS 26, ff. 1v-4r).
