[Gocamino] on transformations

[Robert Spenger]

Where does the "500,000 per year" come from? I find it quoted in 
Michener's "Iberia." Here is the quote from page 721:

> We can speak with accuracy of this vast movement of people–the 
> incredible number of more than half a million moved along the road 
> each year–because in 1130 what is generally held to be the world's 
> first travel guide was written, describing the glories and hardships 
> of this route. It was written at the request of the Church , which 
> hoped thereby to encourage pilgrimages, by a French priest, Aymery de 
> Picaud, who lived along one of the pilgrim routes and set the pattern 
> for future travel writers: things near at home he praised, those 
> further away he questioned,  while those distant he condemned.

He goes on to give some examples of this so-called pattern for future 
travel writers, but nowhere does he say where he got the over one half 
million figure. Melczer, on the other hand, in his scholarly work on 
the Codex, gives a figure of tens of thousands:

The pilgrims guide to Santiago de Compostela [by] William Melczer. - A 
translation of Book V of the Codex Calixtinus with introduction, notes, 
hagiographical register, gazetteer and bibliography. - New York: 
Italica Press, 1993. - 345 pp.

I don't own a copy of Melczer's text and I can't find my reference to 
the page number, but those who have a copy can check it out. Michener 
was certainly capable of scholarly work and many of his books show 
this, but in this instance it doesn't appear to me that he really 
checked it out. He real talent was that of a story teller and my 
impression is that he didn't let the facts get in the way of a good 
story. There is an interesting contradiction even in his stories about 
himself. On pp 411-412 of his autobiography, "The World Is My Home," he 
states flat out that he never smoked or drank. He makes a strong point 
on having been a teetotaler. However, in "Iberia" (pp 729-731), he 
tells about getting completely snoggered on rioja wine on his visit to 
Logroño.

regards,

Bob S.

On Mar 12, 2005, at 3:00 PM, Brooke Broadbent wrote:

Tinuviel, Donald and others,
I get the reference to walking with our ancestors. If you consider that
500,000 "Europeans" walked the Camino in some years when the population 
of
Europe was 40,000,000, the foundation of the DNA of us with European 
blood
was in there somewhere.