Lecture Titles

Lecture 1 “Religion in Medieval Spain”

handout 1 and handout 2

Lecture 2 “Sin and Salvation in the Medieval Christian West”

handout

Lecture 3 “Saints, Relics, Miracles, and Pilgrimage”

handout

Lecture 4 “Reconquista, Crusade, and the Spanish Inquistion”

Educational Resource List

Much of the enjoyment of travel is in the planning and preparation. Arriving at your destination with some background on the country and its people can make your visit much more rewarding. This list contains recommendations from Stanford trip faculty leader Barbara Pitkin. Please feel free to shop around on-line or go to your local bookstore or library for your trip reading materials.

Highly Recommended

These 3 books are highly recommended by Dr. Pitkin.

Brierley, John. A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino De Santiago. Lightning Source, 2020. With 52 maps and town plans, information on pilgrim hostels and other accommodations, practical advice and spiritual encouragement for the route from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela.

Jusino, Beth. Walking to the End of the World: A Thousand Miles on the Camino de Santiago. Mountaineers Books, 2018. One of the many, many memoirs of a modern pilgrimage to Compostela, Jusino’s book is charming and informative, covering the challenges and delights of hiking the camino and experiences ranging from spectacular to beautifully ordinary.

Sumption, Jonathan. The Age of Pilgrimage, The Medieval Journey to God. Paulist Press, 2003. A scholarly history of pilgrimage in Europe from early Christian times to the days of Chaucer. Sumption, a historian at Oxford University, describes why major destinations like Jerusalem, Rome, Canterbury and Santiago de Compostela were so important and provides background on major figures of the day.

History, Religion & Culture

Carr, Raymond (Editor). Spain: A History. Oxford University Press, 2002. A clearly written, illustrated, concise overview of Spain, from prehistory through the Romans, Moorish Spain, imperial expansion, enlightenment, civil war and authoritarian rule, with contributions by leading scholars.

Coffey, Thomas F. and Maryjane Dunn. The Miracles and Translatio of Saint James: Books Two and Three of the Liber Sancti Jacobi. 2018. English translation of the miracles and other stories about Saint James contained in a 12^th-century manuscript. This book takes you into the heart of medieval devotion to the saint and confronts the reader with his power and significance for medieval pilgrims.

John A. Spain, The Root and the Flower. University of California Press, 2005. Take this book with you to Spain: it’s an absorbing, well-written account of Spanish cultural history from prehistory to the Romans, Jews, Moors, Golden Age and on to Franco and his legacy in Spain.

Doubleday, Simon. The Wise King: A Christian Prince, Muslim Spain, and the Birth of the Renaissance. Basic Books, 2015. A stimulating biography of the 13^th-century Castilian ruler Alphonso X, contending that this cosmopolitan and learned king paved the way for the Renaissance though his wide-ranging support of arts, learning, and interreligious conversations.

Fletcher, Richard. Moorish Spain. University of California Press, 2006. This book traces the fascinating history and culture of Islam in medieval Spain.

Melczer, William. The Pilgrim’s Guide to Santiago de Compostela. 2008. Italica press 1993. A superb translation of the 12^th-century Pilgrim’s Guide with an excellent introduction that provides insight into the medieval pilgrimage and its cultural, historical, and spiritual significance in medieval times.

Mullins, Edwin. Cluny, In Search of God’s Lost Empire. Perseus, 2008. Mullins (The Pilgrimage to Santiago) deftly explores the architecture, monks and abbots, long history and lasting influence of Cluny, a Benedictine monastery in Burgundy and the hub of one of the most powerful empires of the Middle Ages.

Nolan, Dee. A Food Lover’s Pilgrimage Along the Camino to Santiago de Compostela. Independent Publishers Group, 2015. Dee Nolan follows the 1000-year-old Camino de Santiago to seek out ancient food traditions and talk to cooks and farmers, discovering the importance of knowing where food comes from and finding herself along the way.

Art & Architecture

Mann, Janice. Romanesque Architecture and Its Sculptural Decoration in Christian Spain, 1000-1120: Exploring Frontiers and Defining Identities. University of Toronto Press, 2015. A scholarly investigation of royal networks and architectural patronage and their role in establishing new identities in the high point of the medieval pilgrimage and heightened aggression towards Muslim Spain.

Travel & Memoir

Brenan, Gerald. The Face of Spain. Serif, 2010. Brenan searches for Lorca’s unmarked grave (and knows not if he has found it), travels to the great mosque in Cordoba, the Synagogue of Toledo and other touchstones of Spain’s history, in this immensely pleasurable portrait of Spain in 1949, the wounds of the war still fresh.

Frey, Nancy Louise. Pilgrim Stories, On and Off the Road to Santiago. University of California Press, 1998. A cultural anthropologist explores the sights, sounds -- and meaning -- of modern journeys along the “Camino de Santiago,” according to interviews with those who travel it.

Hopkins, Adam, Spanish Journeys. Viking, 1992. A history of Spain seen from the viewpoint of a modern traveller visiting evocative sites. Good scholarship and enjoyable reading.

Michener, James. Iberia, Spanish Travels & Reflections. Fawcett, 2015. In this best- selling travelogue first published in 1968, Michener presents a compulsively readable and well-observed account of his long-standing love of Spain and all things Spanish. It has achieved the status of a classic, rich in detail and insightful.

Nooteboom, Cees Roads to Santiago: A Modern-Day Pilgrimage Through Spain. Harcourt, 1997. An excellent general book on Spanish history, culture, geography, and peoples, written by a Dutch writer.

Rudolph, Conrad. Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Campostela. University of Chicago Press, 2004. An engaging, literary account of 11 weeks of travels from Le Puy along the way of St. James, 1,000 miles all told.

Literature

Burgess, Glyn S. The Song of Roland. Penguin Putnam, 1990. Recalling the gory battle which took place in 778 (as Charlemagne’s rear guard was ambushed by Saracens) this 11^th-century epic poem is a classic of European literature, inviting reflection on the shaping of religious and cultural identities, memory, traditions.

Cervantes, Miguel de, and Edith Grossman (Translator). Don Quixote. HarperCollins Publishers, 2003. Any Spaniard will acknowledge his pervasive the influence of Cervantes’ masterpiece remains in Spanish culture. And any English reader of Grossman’s translation of this classic will laugh all the way to Iberia!

Maps & Guidebooks

Davidson, Linda Kay, and David Gitlitz. The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago, The Complete Cultural Handbook. St. Martin’s Press, 2000. A kilometer-by-kilometer guide to the route of St. James across northern Spain with copious information on the historical and artistic sites along the way. You probably won’t want it in your daypack, but in your suitcase it will be invaluable for previews of the following day and reflections on the preceding one.

Freytag & Berndt. Santiago de Compostela Pocket Map. Freytag & Berndt, 2012. This durable, laminated map features the Spanish city at a scale of 1:10,000, with essential sites and an inset of the Spanish coast south to Vigo. Ideal for slipping into a back pocket and exploring the city. Multi-lingual, with English.

Film and YouTube

Estevez, Emilio. The Way. Baker & Taylor Video, 2010. An inspirational film written and produced by Emilio Estevez, starring Martin Sheen. A father travels to Spain following the death of his son Daniel. While grieving, he pays homage to Daniel’s memory by continuing his unfinished pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago, the “Way of St. James.”

Gerson, Paula. “The Twelfth-century Pilgrim’s Guide to Santiago de Compostela: Art and Mores Along the Route.” The Met, 2011. Lecture on the Guide by a specialist in medieval art history, part of a larger series on the pilgrimage to Compostela. 55 minutes. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_1gpHkwCLI

Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago. 2013. This documentary explores the journey of 6 modern-day pilgrims of different ages, nationalities and backgrounds, and how they experience the Camino in their own way. Facing their fears, worries… they overcome suffering.