The Pilgrim's Guide to Santiago De Compostela

Medium Aevum, vol. 64, 1995
"William Melczer's book offers the first complete English translation of Book V of the famous Liber Sancti Jacobi. A very readable translation. is accompanied by a wealth of explanatory information: no fewer than 609 notesoffer the most thorough commentary the Pilgrim's Guide has ever been given. The particular emphasis given to the cult of the saints connected with the road to St. James, which has never been studied so thoroughly before, makes it a valuable addition to the existing literature on the cult of, and the pilgrimage to, St. James."


Cistercian Studies Quarterly, vol 32, no. 3, 1997
"In some senses, the whole history of Iberian Catholicism can be recounted from the vantage point of this classical journey, as can much of European spirituality, iconography, and religious architecture. This English volume will be an important contribution to the rich library of Santiago literature."


Bryn Mawr Medieval Review, 95.5.7
"I heartily recommend this book as a first step with which to begin one's personal journey to Santiago de Compostela. It is chock full of useful information on the Camino, and, like a journey itself, it offers the traveler the opportunity to follow many interesting by-ways (whether geographical or bibliographical) along the way."


Small Press, Winter 1994
"Melczer's achievement here is to bring experience that is remote from and even alien to the modern temper vividly to life. it is a very pleasant surprise that will involve, instruct, intrigue and, perhaps, inspire."


Book Description
THE PILGRIM’S GUIDE TO SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA presents the first complete English translation of Book Five of the Liber Sancti Jacobi or Codex Calixtinus. This twelfth-century guidebook traces the route from southern France to Santiago de Compostela. The medieval Christian world knew three major pilgrimage sites – Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela. Between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries Compostela was by far the most popular. THE PILGRIMAGE to Compostela was a once-in-a-lifetime human adventure. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims came year after year through France and across the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela near the Atlantic shores of Galicia in far western Spain. In his study of the road to Santiago Professor Melczer discusses: Relics and pilgrimages The origin of the cult of St. James Myth and historical reality in the tradition of St. James The Iter Sancti Jacobi The Liber Sancti Jacobi Pilgrimage without ideology The iconography of St. James. This book also includes extensive commentaries and notes that highlight historical, geographical, art-historical, hagiographic, and general cultural matters along the route traced by the Guide. 3rd Printing. Illustrated, map, plan, bibliography, index, Gazetteer, Hagiographic Register.


From the Publisher
The medieval Christian world knew three major pilgrimage sites - Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela. Between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries Compostela was by far the most popular. The pilgrimage to Compostela was a once-in-a-lifetime human adventure. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims came year after year through France and across the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela near the Atlantic shores of Galicia in far western Spain. Through the EC designation of the pilgrimage route as a European Cultural Itinerary, it has once again become a major route for cultural and religious pilgrims and travelers. A related title is "The Miracles of St. James."


About the Author
WILLIAM MELCZER was, until his death in April 1995, Professor of Medieval & Renaissance Studies at Syracuse University. His scholarly work includes three books on medieval art and Christian iconography, one volume on Columbus and his Book of Prophecies, and some fifty articles on the art history and the history of ideas of the Renaissance. For more than seven years he led the Syracuse University Traveling Seminar, “The Medieval Pilgrimage Routes from Southern France to Santiago de Compostela: Romanesque Art in the Making.”


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