Being a Pilgrim: Art and Ritual on the Medieval Routes to Santiago (review)

Over the last few years there has been a huge resurgence of interest and publications on the history and art of the medieval pilgrimage. By far, the greatest number of books and articles have been written on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain—the site associated with the Apostle James around which a cult developed as early as the tenth century. Many of these publications are of a scholarly nature and focus entirely on art and architecture, while others are of a more personal nature and document the private journey. None have attempted to do what this beautifully produced book does, and that is to combine a popular and scholarly approach with the experience. In nine chapters the coauthors move the modern pilgrim through the medieval experience of the journey with the full realization that they are writing for a twenty-first century audience. It is, as they say, an attempt to relive the whole culture of the journey and not just the actual religious experience that it was.

The first chapter, which introduces the reader to St. James, his history, and his cult, is concise in its approach and nicely balances the modern perspective with extracts from medieval travelers' accounts—a particularly attractive approach that can be found throughout the rest of the volume and that will appeal to the specialist audience. The second chapter, which focuses on the geography of the pilgrimage, looks at the land routes and the many paths that could start in Paris or the southeast. The third chapter, which details the preparations for the journey, looks at rituals and superstitions, both medieval and modern. The fourth chapter is a novel perspective on the social and architectural experiences of the traveler, ranging over subjects from the hospice and town gate to the confraternities and thieves that the traveler would have encountered. It is a selective and nicely arranged sampling of some of the principal architectural elements on the routes. The fifth chapter, which looks at the cults of saints and the religious experience of the traveler en route, features a series of case studies ranging from Conques to St. Gilles du Gard. Another series of case studies—this time of conurbations—is the subject of the sixth chapter, "The Wonders of the Towns." The chapter deals with some of the major towns and cities on the route, from Poitiers to Melle. Only at this point—nearly halfway through the volume—are readers brought from France into Spain. It is slightly disappointing that there is such an imbalance between the French and Spanish material, given the generic nature of many of the chapter headings. The seventh chapter looks at the legends and folklore of the route, from Charlemagne to Roland, before we are brought into the music of the journey in the second last chapter. The ninth chapter firmly places the pilgrim in Santiago and moves seamlessly between the modern and medieval.

The division of labor is clear—one author undertook the text while the other took the many images—and this has led to a consistent work. Were it not for the quality of the text, this book could have been seen as a picture essay on the route. Despite the quality of some of the photographs, the book mostly reproduces the already well known, and it would have been interesting to have some of the smaller and lesser-known sites depicted.

It is a slightly deceptive volume in that the text is relatively short (with comparatively few footnotes), and the images are luxuriously printed in large formats, which, when combined, have produced a relatively thick book. It is engagingly written, finely balances the academic and the popular, and does not fall between the two areas. This is a valuable contribution to the literature of pilgrimage.