Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: "Brill". See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.issn 2213-3399 isbn 978-90-04-49951-5 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-49954-6 (e-book)
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: "Brill". See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.issn 2213-3399 isbn 978-90-04-49951-5 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-49954-6 (e-book)
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. ConclusionsIn this survey the gradual shaping and formation of the sacred topography of pilgrims in regard to the wide area of the Ionian Islands, the Peloponnese and Crete has been observed and analysed, while travelling with them, through their writings, as they sailed the Ionian and the Aegean towards Jerusalem. The texts examined in this study proved to be invaluable sources of information. Behind the common descriptions of sites and objects that reveal that the vast majority of pilgrims were already well-informed by pilgrim guides, one can discern personal beliefs, faith and fears, thoughts and sentiments, as well as formed aesthetic views and cultural and social backgrounds.The particularity of the studied area is compellingly reflected in the pilgrims' narratives: a space where Latins coexisted with a population with strongly rooted Byzantine traditions; the absence (excepting in the town of Candia) of elaborate structures and the 'important' relics pilgrims were so eager to approach; and, subsequently, their acquaintance with peripheral cults and sites, most of which were places of devotion of different confessional groups. It is in these cases, when the travellers move away from the norm of standard descriptions, that the true value of their narratives lies. In fact, in such examples as the cult of St Leo of Modon or the icons of the Virgin in the Dominican monastery of Modon and the Dominican and Augustinian monasteries of Candia their texts are among the very few -if not the only -available sources about them. Their testimonies, echoing expectations, both spiritual and aesthetic, and conveying personal experiences, reflect the ways in which each site was perceived and shed light on the reasons for its insertion and its importance in the pilgrims' holy itinerary.Besides the pious travellers, the undisputable protagonists in the forming of the sacred topography of the studied area, other actors also played an important role. The mariners, linked with the sea, its dangers and its routes, had already formed their own religious topography. This network of sites, encompassing famous cults and sites, as well as the peripheral 'unknown' small peregrinagia maritima, found an expression in the Santa Parola litany, a mariners' prayer chanted in times of peril, listing all the aforementioned sites that dotted the main sea routes of medieval navigation. Lastly, the local actors, the religious and secular officials of each area, also participated in the process.The studied area's sacred topography appears to have evolved along with the ports the pilgrims visited, induced in a way by their physical movement towards their desired destination, the Holy Land. Sailing through the Ionian and the Aegean, the galleys regularly docked at the Venetian-controlled
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.1 On the distinction between holy and sacred, see Turner and Turner 1978; Turner 1979; Smith 1987; Stoddard and Morinis 1997. 2 The theoretical approach to the subject is described here as analysed in the outline of the project 'Von Venedig zum Heiligen Land. Ausstattung und Wahrnehmung von Pilgerorten an der Mittelmeerküste (1300-1550)' by Michele Bacci, who has worked extensively on these ideas. See Bacci 2004b; Bacci 2012; Bacci 2013a; Bacci 2031b; Bacci 2014; Bacci 2017a; Bacci 2018. 3 Concerning the sources of the pilgrims' travelogues of the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods, several collections and translations of the texts have been published: Geyer 1965;
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
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