My interest in the history of the camino

[Barry Evans]

Hi Maryjane
My wife and I ran away from Silicon Valley two years ago without knowing where
we were going or for how long. We had an amazing time in the Middle East,
Georgia (republic), Mexico, Ireland, Morocco. We'd just gotten back to
California (tho' not our old home, we're way up the coast now) when Louisa
decided she wanted to celebrate turning 50 with a bang, something significant,
she said, to acknowledge "starting the 2nd half of her life." 2 weeks later, we
flew to London (it really was that spontaneous). Walked from St Jean to
Finisterre. Wonderful. Big, big experience for both of us.
I'm an author ("science lite" previously, check out Amazon if you're
interested) and have been playing around with a book about two
nearly-middle-agers taking off, the sort of thing most people do when they're
18, as I recall! From a chronological standpoint, the camino comes at the end
(to date) of our adventures. Hence my interest: I'd like to include some of the
history vs. legend material in the book (being a science writer). I will indeed
follow up on your book.
I'm also a limey, so much appreciate your posts about British peregrinos in the
middle ages.
I guess I don't want to post more specifics about what I've found out (I've
been in touch with a friend, medieval historian at a NY university) until I
feel it won't attract the sort of divisive stuff we've been seeing here.
Thank you for your interest! Again, much appreciate the information.
Best wishes, barryevans


--- Joe & MJ <mjdunnaTXUCOM.NET> wrote:
> Barry--Now I'm curious...what type of article are you writing? for
> publication? for school? What's your interest in the Camino based on? Will
> you share it (your article) with us first (or at least with Linda for
> possible inclusion in the "Friends" newsletter)?
>
> I wish I could help you with the medieval numbers. I looked through our
> (Linda's and my) Santiago bibliography and couldn't come across anything
> specific. I also browsed through the majority of my "big" Camino books but
> couldn't find anything in them either (although I admit it was just a rather
> cursory browse). I honestly don't remember any article that set forth good
> census figures for the Camino in general.
>
> As a bit more general information, you may want to look at the Introduction
> to The Pilgrimage to Compostela in the Middle Ages which Linda and I edited
> in 1996 and which appeared in paperback in 2000 (Routledge, ISBN
> 0-8153-1638-0 or 0-415-92895-8). We put together a short appendix of names
> of known/famous pilgrims to Compostela by century. I note that there are
> only 3 9th century names (and one of those is an Arab poet!); 6 names in the
> 10th century; 17 in the 11th century; 30 in the 12th century; and 23 in the
> 13th century (and yes, we list St. Francis as traveling in 1214). Don't know
> that this helps much, but many of the names are of kings, princes, etc.
> There could be hundreds traveling with them. At the same time, some of the
> names are of saints/hermits and so would be solitary travelers.
>
> Maryjane
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Road to Santiago Pilgrimage [mailto:GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU]On
> > Behalf Of Barry Evans
> > Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2001 1:51 PM
> > To: GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Travelling in good faith and good faith alon
> > (Re:millions...St.francis...)
> >
> >
> > Perry, Once again, no one's attacking your beliefs! Some of us
> > are interested
> > in the history of the camino (I'm writing an article). It DOES
> > matter to us,
> > not as a matter of faith, but as a matter of seeing how much
> > truth there is to
> > the old legends.
> > I was hoping, in starting this discussion, that someone would
> > either come up
> > with some piece of history to confirm or deny the legend of a
> > million pilgrims
> > a year walking the camino, to weave that into my own story (eg
> > there's ample
> > historical evidence, I think, that St. Francis made a pilgrimage
> > to Rome, which
> > seems to be lacking for the Santiago story). So far, we've had a lot of
> > opinions, but nothing you could call evidence one way or the
> > other, which may
> > be where we'll have to leave this.
> >
> > But meanwhile, please afford us the courtesy of discussing this
> > without this
> > constant sniping at our interest! Just delete anything with
> > "million" in the
> > subject line, you don't have to read it or be bothered by it!
> > barryevans
> >


=====
Barry Evans    (707) 476 8317
217 Second Street, Eureka, CA 95501
Our camino photos: http://us.geocities.com/barryevans9/camino

"The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat
in a dark room, especially if there is no cat."
                                                     Confucius

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send your FREE holiday greetings online!
http://greetings.yahoo.com