Liber Sancti Jacobi, Codex Calixtinus

Abstract

It was with these words that Aimerico Picaud, in about the year 1140, addressed the pilgrims that walked the European routes to Santiago of Compostela. In chapter VIII of the V book of the Codex Calixtinus, known as a guide to pilgrims, there was an enumeration of the bodies of the Saints that there were in the different Churches, monasteries and chapels that the pilgrim would find along the different routes, that is, the tolosana, podiense, limusina or touronense routes that lead to Santiago. The author points out numerous burial places of Saints in France, but on the Spanish route he only mentions those of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, San Fecundo y Primitivo in Sahagun, San Isidoro de Leon and the tomb of the apostle in Compostela. It is evident that the pilgrimage to Santiago was understood in the Middle Ages as a route that had many relics and saints that the pilgrims had to venerate in their path to their final objective: the tomb of the apostle Saint James in Compostela. We propose to cover the way of Saint James through the sepulchres and relics of the saints on the route from Jaca to Compostela, which the pilgrims could visit at that time. Fortunately the majority of these have been preserved until today. There are two main reasons why we have taken on on this theme. Firstly, we felt that it was worthwhile, due to the fact that we are in a Jacobean year, to recover the authentic spirit of a Christian pilgrimage to venerate the sepulchre of a Saint, as in the case of the ancient pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, or the tomb of the Apostles Saint Peter and Paul in Rome. Secondly, even though there is abundant artistic historiography concerning the Pilgrim route to Santiago, the majority of the studies have concentrated on architecture, Monumental Sculpture or Painting, but have not focused on devotional sculpture, which has been extremely influential in artistic terms. SOLEDAD DE SILVA Y VERASTEGUI CUADERNOS DE LA CATEDRA DE PATRIMONIO / No 5 / 2011 / 235-261 236 CCPAN B-05:CCPAN 16/5/11 10:41 Pagina 236