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This year seemed to start with a large increase in numbers compared to last year. 30% and more for the first few months. But that initial rush seems to have tailed off and today a local news site is reporting that July numbers are actually down on last year. The Compostela total for the year to date is now about 9% above the same period last year. That is extraordinary enough given last year was a Holy Year and had the highest total recorded since the Camino's 20th century revival. But unless there is another significant bump in numbers in the autumn reaching the half-million this year now looks less likely.Given current trends, it is likely that pilgrim numbers in Santiago will reach 500000, half a million, either this year or in 2024.
Is this publication available online? I´d love to add it to my collection of Camino related readings.Earlier this year I stumbled across a claim that at its peak the monastery in Roncesvalles was feeding between 25,000 and 30,000 pilgrims each year. Based on the community's accounts. Of course that was only one house on one of the many possible routes.
Is this publication available online? I´d love to add it to my collection of Camino related readings.
I know what you mean. Let´s face it, even now with all the sophisticated IT data collection systems at our disposal, we really have no clear idea of how many visitors arrive in Santiago every year even now. However, it is one thing to say that some past event is impossible or improbable, it is another thing to say what actually happened. In other words, some historians have produced evidence, which may, of course be reliable but may equally well be unreliable, suggesting hundreds of thousands of pilgrims arriving in Santiago. If other historians want to dispute this, they need to back up their own claim with reliable research that suggests a more reliable or realistic figure. Simply dismissing someone else´s claim as implausible is not, in academic circles, good enough. To be honest, I find the figure of 500000 pilgrims a year absolutely astonishing and hard to accept, but I wouldn´t dismiss it out of hand, especially when there are real historians discussing it as a possibility.The number of medieval pilgrims arriving in Santiago in the Middle Ages is difficult to estimate, but is certainly not as huge as hundreds of thousands.
I also want to give actual historians (which I'm not) the benefit of the doubt.To be honest, I find the figure of 500000 pilgrims a year absolutely astonishing and hard to accept, but I wouldn´t dismiss it out of hand, especially when there are real historians discussing it as a possibility.
I generally agree with your point, but I'm wondering, in the late(r) middle ages, where the "large part of Europe" you are referring to was located, when you wrote:I also want to give actual historians (which I'm not) the benefit of the doubt.
But... By somewhat more certain estimates, the entire population of all of Europe in the late(r) middle ages is between 50 and 80 million people.
500,000 pilgrims per year would then mean that more than half of all Europeans went to Santiago at least once in their lives (assuming a lifespan of some 50-70 years).
Half of all Europeans! That's a lot, especially considering a large part of Europe wouldn't have been Christian and/or venerating st. James.
Surely some of this is off-set by people (locals?) making the pilgrimage more than once, but still... I think if the vast majority of people went on this specific pilgrimage at least once in their lives, it would have a much more prominent role in history.
Compare to the Hajj to Mecca, which is one of the main pillars of Islam and had societal (and religious) priority over any other Islamic pilgrimage -- and didn't even come close to 500,000 pilgrims every year in Medieval times.
especially considering a large part of Europe wouldn't have been Christian and/or venerating st. James.
Another of looking at it is by saying that at any given time, up to 1% of the population of Europe were on pilgrimage to Santiago. 1% on a pilgrimage somewhere, probably local, is actually quite likely, but to Santiago? I´ve attached a pdf of the article I quoted from so you can all have a look.500,000 pilgrims per year would then mean that more than half of all Europeans went to Santiago at least once in their lives (assuming a lifespan of some 50-70 years).
I originally wrote "depending on the century" but scrapped that for brevity. In the case of 1023: parts of Scandinavia, Finland, Norhwest Russia, most of the Baltics, but also parts of coastal Germany and Poland. Admittedly, the population in those parts might have been negligible compared to the South & West.I generally agree with your point, but I'm wondering, in the late(r) middle ages, where the "large part of Europe" you are referring to was located, when you wrote:
Good point. Parts of Spain and Sicily were under Muslim rule, but even so, many of the inhabitants had been Christian since Roman times and the Visigoths had mainly converted by mid 6th century. Charlemagne had converted the Saxons of east Europe by the end of the ninth century, even Scandinavia had mostly converted by 1000. The cult of Santiago seems to have been widespread. I grew up in an English village that had a church dedicated to St. James built before 1100.I generally agree with your point, but I'm wondering, in the late(r) middle ages, where the "large part of Europe" you are referring to was located, when you wrote:
I decided that I won't participate in the discussion about the 500,000 but your comment proved irresistible. Note: This is not about the 500,000. It's just such a great example for the quotes of quotes of quotes.Earlier this year I stumbled across a claim that at its peak the monastery in Roncesvalles was feeding between 25,000 and 30,000 pilgrims each year. Based on the community's accounts. Of course that was only one house on one of the many possible routes.
If I can help out? See below for a link to the quote for this quote. It leads to good old Turner which I did not look up.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.
In a nutshell: They were preoccupied with what might happen to them in the afterlife.Why did they go?
Page 207-8 on numbers in SantiagoGiven that Jennifer Stopford quotes Rahtz&Watts who quote Turner, does anyone have the Turner book and can look up what they write on pages 207 and 230 about the 500,000? The book's reference is given as Turner, V. & Turner, E., 1978, Image of pilgrimage in Christian culture.
That is at least illustrated by the various Villafranca scattered across Northern Spain.Local authorities along that northern strip would have seen many of the incoming pilgrims as desirable immigrants because of their maturity and dedication (as demonstrated by the pilgrimage itself) to a set of values that was compatible to that of the local Christian population. It would have made sense to encourage them to stay. And the arriving pilgrims would have found themselves surrounded by folks having shared experiences and attitudes.
This is just my mental model.
Mental models perplex me. Most categories and boxes do!This is an interesting thread.
Posts #1 & #2 both quote documents having words to the effect that medieval pilgrims, after having arrived in Santiago de Compostela, eventually returned to their place of origin.
I am most certainly not an expert on the history of this or any other pilgrimage route, but when I envision the costs, difficulties, and risks probably inherent in undertaking a long medieval foot pilgrimage, I find it hard to believe that substantial percentages of such pilgrims would have been able to, or even have wanted to, return to their place of origin.
My mental model is that many pilgrims from far way (I guess I mean "from outside of the Iberian Peninsula") who survived the weather and en-route injuries and illnesses and the bad food and the mountain passes and the trail bandits and who had finally arrived in Santiago, would be so worn out and broke upon arrival that the very last thing they would want to do is walk all the way back again. What would have been the point? They would have accomplished whatever worldly life goals they had set for themselves before deciding to shift to spiritual goals such as pilgrimage. They would have said their final goodbyes to their loved ones before setting off. Most of them would not have had "a job" to return to. Whatever knowledge, skills, and abilities that they had possessed at their points of origin, that had helped them earn a living, they would still have possessed in Santiago, so they would have been able to earn some sort of living, especially if the population of like-minded folks was increasing.
I have a hunch that upon arrival a lot of them would have had two main thoughts: Firstly, "Thank you, God, for letting me make, and survive, this journey", and then, sometime later, "I think that I am going to just stay here. This is where I live now."
Obviously there would have been exceptions.
In the back of my mind is the idea that during the period of Moorish rule over most of the Iberian Peninsula, there always remained a narrow, sparsely-populated Christian-dominated strip of land north of the north-coast range of mountains that the Moors were never able to conquer, and that one of the purposes of establishing Santiago as a pilgrimage destination was to increase the population of Christians in the area, with a view to eventually pushing out the Moors.
Local authorities along that northern strip would have seen many of the incoming pilgrims as desirable immigrants because of their maturity and dedication (as demonstrated by the pilgrimage itself) to a set of values that was compatible to that of the local Christian population. It would have made sense to encourage them to stay. And the arriving pilgrims would have found themselves surrounded by folks having shared experiences and attitudes.
This is just my mental model.
There are several small villages in Galicia with the name " Francos" included. So some of them didn' t return.That is at least illustrated by the various Villafranca scattered across Northern Spain.
The population of Galicia suggests that most pilgrims did go home again, or it would have been the most populous province in Iberia. There's evidence recently from the excavations associated with the building of a new high-speed railway in the UK where archeologists have uncovered more than a few ex-pilgrims buried with their shells that supports the idea that there and back again was the pilgrimage.
A very important point. Even then, experts have to interpret what little empirical data they have. For example, the Roncesvalles rations: was a ration a meal? And if so, how many meals were given to each recipient? In other words, someone staying overnight might receive both breakfast and dinner, thus cutting the number of supposed recipients in half. Ben Nilson is without doubt an expert, yet his data about offerings to St. Hugh can´t tell us if the people who left them had travelled hundreds or dozen of miles across country or whether they were local people asking for the saint´s intercession. But thank you, Kathar1na, for the extraordinary research you have done.Very few people are experts in the field of the very narrow topic of the number of medieval pilgrims who went to Santiago and back.
´Majority´ is unlikely. The Middle Ages were lawless at times, but that suggests an extraordinary crime wave and a hyperactive judiciary. Many pilgrims were also seeking or giving thanks for a cure believing that relics held supernatural power.It seems I read from Dr. King's work in 1920, that the majority of the pilgrims were criminals that were either given the opportunity to walk to Santiago
I wouldn't bet on the average lifespan of people in those days being as high as 50 - 70 ...I also want to give actual historians (which I'm not) the benefit of the doubt.
But... By somewhat more certain estimates, the entire population of all of Europe in the late(r) middle ages is between 50 and 80 million people.
500,000 pilgrims per year would then mean that more than half of all Europeans went to Santiago at least once in their lives (assuming a lifespan of some 50-70 years).
Half of all Europeans! That's a lot, especially considering a large part of Europe wouldn't have been Christian and/or venerating st. James.
Surely some of this is off-set by people (locals?) making the pilgrimage more than once, but still... I think if the vast majority of people went on this specific pilgrimage at least once in their lives, it would have a much more prominent role in history.
Compare to the Hajj to Mecca, which is one of the main pillars of Islam and had societal (and religious) priority over any other Islamic pilgrimage -- and didn't even come close to 500,000 pilgrims every year in Medieval times.
Thank you for the information. My first thoughts on reading your post is the sincerehope these Peregrinos leave only their foot prints on the Sacred ways.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?
I can… just need a few days to get back to my office and have a look. Please remind me if I’ve not done it by this time next week!I've finished reading through the Rahtz and Watts article. It finishes with this paragraph:
This offering to Harold Taylor is neither learned nor profound. A month spent in travel is no substitute for the research needed to put Lourdes and Santiago de Compostela in a proper historical, archaeological, or ethnographic perspective.Given that Jennifer Stopford quotes Rahtz&Watts who quote Turner, does anyone have the Turner book and can look up what they write on pages 207 and 230 about the 500,000? The book's reference is given as Turner, V. & Turner, E., 1978, Image of pilgrimage in Christian culture.
Just curious.
You’d be surprised! Although women often died as a result of having children too early (when it is more dangerous to an immature anatomy) or repeatedly, thus having dangerous complications prior to age 35…. And men died frequently enough from injuries sustained in labour or in war, very elderly people are common enough a concern to appear in the texts we have to survive from antiquity (Galen, Cicero, Plato, Aristotle, the Hippocratic texts and what remains of the Epicureans, just to name a few…) all the way forward to the contemporary world of gerontology. The preoccupation with the health and needs of the elderly appears often enough for us to now that being quite old was common enough to be unremarkable.I wouldn't bet on the average lifespan of people in those days being as high as 50 - 70 ...
Does anyone have an image of what a "silken wimple" looks like? Love the phrase!Another of looking at it is by saying that at any given time, up to 1% of the population of Europe were on pilgrimage to Santiago. 1% on a pilgrimage somewhere, probably local, is actually quite likely, but to Santiago? I´ve attached a pdf of the article I quoted from so you can all have a look.
One of the things I came to realise during my lockdown reading was how wide of the mark we are in our idea of the middle ages. Far from being a rabble of scrofulous, half starved peasants lorded over by galloping knights in armour occasionally sallying forth from their castles waved off by fair damsels in silken wimples, they were technically highly accomplished (they´d invented clocks by 1300) and able to mobilise massive human and material resources. They also got around a lot, not just as pilgrims, but as merchants, artisans or simply itinerant workers.
Thank you so much for copying these passages from Turner's 1978 book! I had not expected to see this in the thread and I had already tentatively toyed with the idea of travelling to the nearest university library that has a copy - an idea I had toyed with numerous times in the past when a document or book was not accessible online or too expensive to read but it always remained an idea and I never went anywhere where I could actually hold a book or document in my hands.Page 207-8 on numbers in Santiago
View attachment 153897
Page 230 on numbers in Lourdes
View attachment 153898
I agree, 40/50 was considered old.I wouldn't bet on the average lifespan of people in those days being as high as 50 - 70 ...
Those who read the Rahtz&Watts article will have noticed that it contains some other nice whoppersFor Rahtz and Watts, look at: CBA Research Report, No 60, The Anglo-Saxon Church, Papers on the history, architecture, and archaeology in honour of Dr H M Tayler, 1986, page 51 - The archeologist on the Road to Lourdes and Santiago de Compostela, Philip Rahtz and Lorna Watts.
Source: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.u...t=arch-281-1/dissemination/pdf/cba_rr_060.pdf
I´d love to know exactly where that number originated from, but as you say, it is simply a number that is repeated until it is accepted as true. I had hoped to pin down the source, but if you can´t, nobody can.I've frequently come across the supposedly 500,000 annual pilgrims to Santiago in medieval times and it is no wonder that people take it as a known fact when it isn't.
In the crossing are the ropes and ceiling pulleys of the famous botafumeiro. This is a giant censer, over 1 m high, which must hold several kilos of incense
Don´t hold your breath. I can´t access Mroz´s article online unless I pay $50, but as it was written in 2021, it wouldn´t be the source for the magic number. I did scroll though the ref list however, most of his sources are in Polish, not a language I speak. But I shall persist.Could some of you, native english-speakers, get the referred books in order to check what M. Mróz and Murray & Graham wrote exactly ?
Harpur does not give any source for this claim. The book seems to be aimed at a general readership rather than an academic study. There is a short bibliography at the end of the book but no footnotes or references are given in the text itself. This is the passage on page 99 of Sacred Tracks.(If somebody have read "Sacred Tracks...", his help is welcome...)
I´d love to know exactly where that number originated from, but as you say, it is simply a number that is repeated until it is accepted as true. I had hoped to pin down the source, but if you can´t, nobody can.
This could be the stuff of a Summer School, a Winter school...I just found other sources. The first one is more prudent, it tells about "a hundred thousand" (which is huge, too, especially when considered numbers given in the footnote):
"By the height of its fame and popularity in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the modern cathedral’s glorious and astonishingly intact Pórtico de la Gloria was built by Master Mateo, some calculate that every year over a hundred thousand or more pilgrims were making the journey to the westernmost point of Europe—a Finisterre not in Brittany but in Galicia—where they gathered a scallop shell to prove the completion of their journey."
Estimates vary widely because while the carrying capacity for the land was not great the routes were far more diffuse, actually broad swathes with many feeder trails. We know that in 1189 1,500 European crusaders came to Santiago on their way to the Holy Land, while in 1394 800 English pilgrims disembarked in La Coruña, and in 1395 there were some 2,000. In 1456 Englishman William Wey affirmed that he saw 84 ships from various northern European ports in the harbour at La Coruña (Gran Enciclopedia, 18,193–4).
@Kathar1na says well:
"But it was not a predominately long-distance mass phenomenon. Nor was the medieval cult of Saint James concentrated in Santiago. It was spread all over large parts of Europe, in particular France, Germany and the Benelux countries with their numerous Saint James churches and Saint James chapels and what was then regarded as authentic relics."
This source says the same (in english !):
The pilgrimage of Santiago of Compostela
Pilgrimage of Santiago Compostela and the Limousin region in France. The sanctuaries of Saint James and the relations between Compostela and the Aquitains.www.limousin-medieval.com
The decrease in numbers of pilgrims/ tourists walking this summer is possibly due to the temperatures. I recall reading about warnings in the USA as well for hikers to be vigilant regarding the heat.This year seemed to start with a large increase in numbers compared to last year. 30% and more for the first few months. But that initial rush seems to have tailed off and today a local news site is reporting that July numbers are actually down on last year. The Compostela total for the year to date is now about 9% above the same period last year. That is extraordinary enough given last year was a Holy Year and had the highest total recorded since the Camino's 20th century revival. But unless there is another significant bump in numbers in the autumn reaching the half-million this year now looks less likely.
Any sources on that? It seems to fit for the working class folk in the early days of industrialization, but doesn't match my readings for earlier eras. Sure, the average life span may have been significantly lower, but that is primarily due to much greater rates of infant mortality (which will significantly affect the mean) and death in childbirth. Once you get past those, people could live normal life spans. At least, so it seems when you look at people for whom we have recorded birth and death dates.I agree, 40/50 was considered old.
A source older than me says: 70, or 80 for those who are strong. Right now, I am right there in the middle!Any sources on that? It seems to fit for the working class folk in the early days of industrialization, but doesn't match my readings for earlier eras. Sure, the average life span may have been significantly lower, but that is primarily due to much greater rates of infant mortality (which will significantly affect the mean) and death in childbirth. Once you get past those, people could live normal life spans. At least, so it seems when you look at people for whom we have recorded birth and death dates.
The Wikipedia article on life expectancy has a large table with examples of life expectancy over many centuries and different cultures. Mostly based on information from the 1961 edition of Encylopedia Britannica and with a cautionary note on the reliability of the sources. Interesting stuff if taken with the appropriate amount of salt!ny sources on that? It seems to fit for the working class folk in the early days of industrialization, but doesn't match my readings for earlier eras.
The article more or less matches what I understood to be true. For example, in the 13th century, the average life expectancy at birth (for English nobles was 30. Someone could read that and think any English noble living to 40 would be considered old. But if they lived past 21 the average life expectancy was 64. At that point, I really don't think a 40 or 50 year old is considered old.The Wikipedia article on life expectancy has a large table with examples of life expectancy over many centuries and different cultures. Mostly based on information from the 1961 edition of Encylopedia Britannica and with a cautionary note on the reliability of the sources. Interesting stuff if taken with the appropriate amount of salt!
Given current trends, it is likely that pilgrim numbers in Santiago will reach 500000, half a million, either this year or in 2024.numbers have dramatically increased, not just on the camino.
Yes average life expectancy figures are hugely skewed by high infant mortality.The article more or less matches what I understood to be true. For example, in the 13th century, the average life expectancy at birth (for English nobles was 30. Someone could read that and think any English noble living to 40 would be considered old. But if they lived past 21 the average life expectancy was 64. At that point, I really don't think a 40 or 50 year old is considered old.
I suspect, based on the evidence from previous peak years, that while the numbers may drop after the Holy Years/post-Covid bubble, there will be an echo effect and these higher numbers will lead to increasing acceleration in the future. More pilgrims walking now means more going back home and saying "what an amazing time I had" and "if I can do it you can do it" which leads to more pilgrims in the future.In most tourist destinations on the entire planet, tourism is at a peak this year. Most likely because of the Covid lockdowns when people put off travel plans.
And despite the important differences between pilgrimage and tourism, many people choose to spend their vacation time doing Caminos.
I think it’s unlikely that this trend continues once the post-Covid boost simmers down.
Very interesting historical information on this thread.
I have just looked at the annual Compostela totals back to 1970. This year is the first time that Compostela numbers have increased in the year following a Holy Year spike rather than dropping back to the underlying long-term trend. When numbers so far this year are so far removed from previous patterns I would be reluctant to make any bets on how things shape up in the next few years.I suspect, based on the evidence from previous peak years, that while the numbers may drop after the Holy Years/post-Covid bubble, there will be an echo effect and these higher numbers will lead to increasing acceleration in the future.
Brava @Kathar1na!I may have found it after all: René de La Coste-Messelière. He was very eager to promote the Chemin de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle. He was the first president of the very first Camino association.
Absolutely, I'm not saying that numbers will continue to go up from here. Just that I expect them to drop to a number higher than the pre-Covid numbers and continue to rise from there. I think the pattern is that after the Holy Year spike (in this case, Holy Years/post-Covid spike) numbers tend to drop, but not as far as they were pre-Holy Year and then continue to rise until the next Holy Year when they spike again.I have just looked at the annual Compostela totals back to 1970. This year is the first time that Compostela numbers have increased in the year following a Holy Year spike rather than dropping back to the underlying long-term trend. When numbers so far this year are so far removed from previous patterns I would be reluctant to make any bets on how things shape up in the next few years.
Meeting a significant number of Europeans now (especially younger) who will no longer fly on holiday due climate crisis, and looking to do walking / trekking that they can take a bus/train to. Think it’s gonna be a big growth area and Camino welll positioned to take advantage of that!Absolutely, I'm not saying that numbers will continue to go up from here. Just that I expect them to drop to a number higher than the pre-Covid numbers and continue to rise from there. I think the pattern is that after the Holy Year spike (in this case, Holy Years/post-Covid spike) numbers tend to drop, but not as far as they were pre-Holy Year and then continue to rise until the next Holy Year when they spike again.
They drop after a Holy Year, but drop to a higher elevation than they were pre-Holy Year. Each Holy year fives a boost to the long term trend.
I assuage my conscience with doubled carbon credits.Meeting a significant number of Europeans now (especially younger) who will no longer fly on holiday due climate crisis, and looking to do walking / trekking that they can take a bus/train to. Think it’s gonna be a big growth area and Camino welll positioned to take advantage of that!
Kind of off topic, but trying to get accurate mediaeval figures even on something as relatively well documented as the 3 year journey of the 1st crusade reveals a very wide range on the contemporary sources both in terms of participants and combatants involved in the various battles. As some have highlighted, even today the debate on Compostela's issued (measurable) versus actual people walking caminos ending in SdC is a source of discussion. Exaggeration is not a modern construct !Extract (translated) from Herbers:
A giveaway linguistic trick - use of the Passive Voice to avoid saying who performed a specified action. If it was estimated, somebody estimated it, But who? The number of 500000 is looking shakier by the minute.It has been estimated that
Looking?If it was estimated, somebody estimated it, But who? The number of 500000 is looking shakier by the minute
Henri Daniel-Rops - With his book Sur le chemin de Compostelle, published in 1952 and lavishly illustrated with photos, this eminent Catholic historian (1901-1965) adopted without verification, and endorsed with his authority, all the hypotheses of the time, which were thus elevated to the rank of truths
He famously estimated that some 500,000 pilgrims per year made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in its best medieval times. This hypothesis was rejected by several scholars
I agree. To make it easier to find in the future, I've changed the thread title (with permission of the OP, @dick bird) to include more searchable key words, and phrased it as a question so it can now be included under Frequently Asked Questions on the main Forums page. (That might be a slight exaggeration to call it a FAQ, but it is a convenient way to highlight it!)Really seriously, there is a fount of knowledge and sleuth skill here on this forum!
I will bookmark the thread
Beds ? Mediaeval pilgrims habitually roughed it, and even wealthier ones travelled with tents.How could they have achieved this welcome that even today Sarria with its 20 inns and 720 beds could not succeed? What then about the possibilities of Roncesvalles (today ± 200 beds) or Rabanal (today ± 208 beds)..."
That is mainly because of the extremely high rate of deaths among babies and infants skewing that statistic.The article more or less matches what I understood to be true. For example, in the 13th century, the average life expectancy at birth for English nobles was 30.
Don´t we just love a tangent? Here´s a good one about medieval sleeping habits. Seems that waking up in the middle of the night was once considered normal behaviour. And yes, they did sleep on the floor.You're also discounting people sleeping in barns, sleeping by the dozens on floors, paying locals for a place to sleep indoors, and so on. The ones with horse and cart/carriage, sleeping in their vehicle.
500,000 is 500,000, then and now.500,000 is a much smaller number than at present --
I meant that 500,000 is a far smaller number than the likely millions of pilgrims in these 2020s, and no I don't mean millions of foot pilgrims.500,000 is 500,000, then and now.
And clearly a hyperbolic estimate for pilgrim numbers 1000 years ago.
The rest is extra.
Whatever.I don't think it's hyperbolic --
No one is thinking that, actually. Obviously people went on pilgrimage - there and back - in many ways that are different than what happens now. You just have to read Chaucer to know that (Caberbury as opposed to Santiago, of course - but it paints a fairly vivid picture).but if you think that it means "500,000 walking the Camino Francès" as if only a certain type of foot pilgrim can be counted as a "proper pilgrim", then I think that's a misinterpretation
But it seems that it's what several people are arguing against, except it's a false point.No one is thinking that, actually.
Yes, I think so.Or is it about how plausible this frequently cited number appears to be to the individual reader?
Neither am I, but I have to wonder whether we can as a general rule trust “historical evidence.” Historians find numerous ancient documents attesting to a certain fact and conclude it is true. But how do we know those writers weren’t all basing their conclusions on the report of some crackpot like the ones whose nonsense gets thousands of repostings on social media in spite of the fact that they would recognize obvious B.S. were they to think five seconds before reposting?I also want to give actual historians (which I'm not) the benefit of the doubt.
Having finished my second Camino this June (CF in 2022 and Portuguese -from Porto-this year), and hearing of "record setting" numbers walking this year, and now reading this thread, I marvel at peoples quest for knowledge about this amazing subject. I am about as far as you can get from being a scholar about anything so reading this thread is very interesting. I have many times joked that a "true pilgrim" walked back! So regardless of how many pilgrims, and in what year, walked The Camino- I am in awe of them and the history they were part of. You could feel them in every step of the way. So, thanks to all of you sharing your knowledge and thoughts so that my experience is even more vivid and important to me.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?
For Rahtz and Watts, go here: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/issue.xhtml?recordId=1075400. Download the edited volume and go to p. 52. There you will see the authors make a brief mention of a "guess" at the number of medieval pilgrims. The Rahtz and Watts article is in an edited volume: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?
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