The Earliest States of Eastern Europe
DG-2024, 19-20

Early Medieval Latin Itineraria and Descriptions of the Holy Land

M. V. Bibikov

Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences

 

Financing: The article was carried out in accordance with the state assignment of the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences within the framework of the Program of Fundamental Scientific Research in the direction of "Russia and the Middle East: Historical, Political and Cultural Contacts and Interrelations" of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the International Public Organization "IPPO" in 2024.

 

For citation: Bibikov, Мikhail V. Early Medieval Latin Itineraria and Descriptions of the Holy Land // Drevneishie gosudarstva Vostochnoi Evropy (The Earliest States of Eastern Europe). 2024: In memoriam Alexandr V. Nazarenko / Editors of the volume Т.V. Guimon, P.V. Lukin, Е.А. Мelnikova, А.V. Podossinov Мoscow: GAUGN-Press, 2024. S. 1–2.

 

DOI: 10.32608/1560-1382-2024-45-1-2

 

Abstract: The article presents an overview of Latin early medieval characteristics and descriptions of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, written from the very first decades of the Christian era, – starting from the first third of the 4th century. This is a Latin version of the Onomasticon by Eusebius of Caesarea (ca 320 AD), created by Jerome the Blessed ca 388 AD. The so-called Bordeaux Itinerary dated to 333 is an independent author's description of a pilgrimage from Bordigala (Bordeaux) through Constantinople to Jerusalem and other places of Palestine and back – through Rome to Bordeaux. At the end of the 4th century a unique monument of Latin pilgrimage literature was created, the Peregrinatio to the Holy Places by Egeria, or Etheria, or Sylvia the Virgin, which not only lists but describes in detail the holy places of Palestine and the Middle East by a pious pilgrim lady. An example of early Byzantine Latin-language monuments of this kind may be On the Location of the Holy Land by Theodosius and Itinerarium by Antoninus of Placentia in the late 6th – early 7th century. Around 670 there appears the Narration of the Holy Places by the Gallic bishop Arculphus in the Records of Abbot Adamnan, who lived and died in Ireland at the beginning of the 9th century. The Tale of the Disasters in Jerusalem of the time of the Jerusalem patriarch George (796–806?) describes the beginning of the Arab conquest of Near East. These monuments developed the canon of pilgrimage descriptions, terminology, localization and identification of Biblical events with modern geo- and topography, and created the foundations of the genre in its various modifications.

Keywords:
Latin texts, Palestine, Jerusalem, Holy places, pilgrimages
References

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