- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2012, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024
OK, a brief explanatory introduction. What follows is the thread as it first developed under the original title ¨500000 pilgrims expected in 1023¨ If you want to know the answer to the question posed by the new title, you could read through the whole thread - it is well-worth the effort because there is some fascinating stuff here as well as some impressive research. Or just skip to post 51#
Good, I´ve got your attention.
I am not talking about 2023, I am talking about 1023 (or 1223, or 1323)
Given current trends, it is likely that pilgrim numbers in Santiago will reach 500000, half a million, either this year or in 2024. This will be described as ´unprecedented´. However, this extraordinary number may be no more than a return to Medieval levels. The number of five hundred thousand pilgrims a year arriving in Santiago in the middle ages has been bandied about, but the last time I quoted it I was slapped down by a fellow forum member who had studied under that towering figure of Romanesque studies, Meyer Schapiro. Meyer Schapiro was an Art Historian with the emphasis on art, he never claimed to be an authority on general let alone pilgrim history. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by the notion that in the middle ages, half a million people a year were pouring into what was then a much smaller city than it is now, so during lockdown I started to do some research.
It is an elusive figure, the best I found was this:
Guesses for medieval pilgrim numbers to Santiago vary from 0.5 to 2 million a year (Rahtz and Watts 1986: 52). Spread evenly over the year this works out at between 1,400 and 5,500 arriving at the shrine per day. Each of these pilgrims travelled both there and back. These are phenomenal numbers of people. (Some Approaches to the Archaeology of Christian Pilgrimage Author(s): J. Stopford Source: World Archaeology , Jun., 1994, Vol. 26, No. 1, Archaeology of Pilgrimage (Jun., 1994), pp. 57-72).
Unfortunately, I couldn´t get hold of the cited original, Rahtz and Watts. The article is worth reading and mentions other reports and possibly contemporary estimates of hundred of thousands of pilgrims at places like Aachen and Wilsnack.
The most interesting research, though, was by a certain Ben Nilson of the University of British Columbia, whose speciality is medieval English pilgrimage. He was attempting to verify claims by Canterbury cathedral to be receiving hundreds of thousands of pilgrims a year to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury. His findings were published in ´Pilgrimage Explored´ (1999, York Medieval Press). He was able to examine the accounts of Lincoln Cathedral, which have not only survived in remarkably good condition, but were carefully itemised. This reveal that in 1325, the sum of 28 pounds, 3 shillings and tenpence was deposited on the altar of the shrine of St. Hugh of Lincoln, mainly in the form of penny coins, with a few farthings. On the assumption that these were token offerings, and each pilgrim would leave one coin, Nilson inferred that in the course of one year, St. Hugh was receiving around 7000 visitors a year. Given that St. Hugh was an obscure saint even in 1325, he concluded that Canterbury´s claim was at least plausible.
If Canterbury was receiving hundreds of thousands, we can be pretty confident that Santiago was receiving at least as many, if not a lot more.
It makes you think, doesn´t it?
Good, I´ve got your attention.
I am not talking about 2023, I am talking about 1023 (or 1223, or 1323)
Given current trends, it is likely that pilgrim numbers in Santiago will reach 500000, half a million, either this year or in 2024. This will be described as ´unprecedented´. However, this extraordinary number may be no more than a return to Medieval levels. The number of five hundred thousand pilgrims a year arriving in Santiago in the middle ages has been bandied about, but the last time I quoted it I was slapped down by a fellow forum member who had studied under that towering figure of Romanesque studies, Meyer Schapiro. Meyer Schapiro was an Art Historian with the emphasis on art, he never claimed to be an authority on general let alone pilgrim history. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by the notion that in the middle ages, half a million people a year were pouring into what was then a much smaller city than it is now, so during lockdown I started to do some research.
It is an elusive figure, the best I found was this:
Guesses for medieval pilgrim numbers to Santiago vary from 0.5 to 2 million a year (Rahtz and Watts 1986: 52). Spread evenly over the year this works out at between 1,400 and 5,500 arriving at the shrine per day. Each of these pilgrims travelled both there and back. These are phenomenal numbers of people. (Some Approaches to the Archaeology of Christian Pilgrimage Author(s): J. Stopford Source: World Archaeology , Jun., 1994, Vol. 26, No. 1, Archaeology of Pilgrimage (Jun., 1994), pp. 57-72).
Unfortunately, I couldn´t get hold of the cited original, Rahtz and Watts. The article is worth reading and mentions other reports and possibly contemporary estimates of hundred of thousands of pilgrims at places like Aachen and Wilsnack.
The most interesting research, though, was by a certain Ben Nilson of the University of British Columbia, whose speciality is medieval English pilgrimage. He was attempting to verify claims by Canterbury cathedral to be receiving hundreds of thousands of pilgrims a year to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury. His findings were published in ´Pilgrimage Explored´ (1999, York Medieval Press). He was able to examine the accounts of Lincoln Cathedral, which have not only survived in remarkably good condition, but were carefully itemised. This reveal that in 1325, the sum of 28 pounds, 3 shillings and tenpence was deposited on the altar of the shrine of St. Hugh of Lincoln, mainly in the form of penny coins, with a few farthings. On the assumption that these were token offerings, and each pilgrim would leave one coin, Nilson inferred that in the course of one year, St. Hugh was receiving around 7000 visitors a year. Given that St. Hugh was an obscure saint even in 1325, he concluded that Canterbury´s claim was at least plausible.
If Canterbury was receiving hundreds of thousands, we can be pretty confident that Santiago was receiving at least as many, if not a lot more.
It makes you think, doesn´t it?
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