Codex Calixtinus Recovered!

Santiago (St. James), doorway frame, Collegio Fonseca, Santiago de Compostela

©EOP 2012

After a long dry spell, over the next few weeks I hope to post several things, none of which are ready as yet. I am posting today because of excellent news received this morning, the Codex Calixtinus stolen from the Cathedral archive in Santiago de Compostela has been located and four persons, including an electrician who is an employee of the cathedral, have been arrested in a suburb of the city in relation to the theft. La Voz de Galicia the major local newspaper has a good overview of the recovery as does El Pais.

Music

San Juan de Ortega, Burgos, Spain,  September 2011

©eop

Sitting in the family waiting area of Sibley Hospital nervously awaiting the surgeon's report (thankfully for a fairly minor procedure) on my wife, it seems a good time to get back on track and pen a few words. I had intended to have a completed report on my September-October walk on the Camino Frances posted by now, but events, including some family medical issues and the holiday season, have made that impossible. The season was not without its pleasures, not least two performances by the Folger Consort. In December they collaborated with Piffaro (the Philadelphia based wind band of which I admit to being something of a groupie) and vocal soloists to present a wonderful concert of renaissance era Spanish Christmas music, "O Magnum Mysterium." Last Saturday we went to the (earthquake damaged and partially shrouded) Washington National Cathedral to hear the instrumental musicians of the Consort and the ethereal voices of Anonymous 4 perform music by Hildegard of Bingen and various 12^th century French composers, a stunning experience hearing the music in the type of venue for which it was composed, played and sung by true masters of early music. At some date in the not too distant future, I would love to hear live performances of some of the instrumental and vocal music associated with the Camino de Santiago played and sung by the Consort and Anonymous 4. Perhaps they can be persuaded to give such a concert. There is a fantastic CD of music from the Codex Calixtinus by Anonymous 4, but despite the wonders of modern audio recording, a live performance is still special.

I must get back to surveying Camino music as several good recordings have recently come to my attention. This is being written a few days after the last music store in Washington, DC carrying classical CDs announced it is closing. No more browsing, the serendipitous source of many CDs in my collection. Scrolling through lists on websites is just not the same. On-line one can listen to snippets of the recordings, recalling the record store booths of my childhood where one could sample records, but reading the album notes while holding the disc has been my avenue of serendipitous discovery. At various music websites, it is easy to find recordings advertised and promoted by major labels, but much recorded early music, including that linked to pilgrimage, is on small or private labels with budgets barely large enough to cover production costs. Only with a little luck and reports from a network of others who share the arcane taste for early music can one find these titles.

With the holidays over and medical issues under control, I hope, the usually grim weather of winter is a good time to get back to writing about pilgrimage issues, so I plan to write some additional postings in the next few weeks. At least I have managed to go through many of the 2,000+ photographs from my autumn pilgrimage and do a bit of editing, so I might even post a photo blog on Flicker or similar.

Meanwhile, what is the fate of the purloined Codex Calixtinus? While I was on the Camino no one seemed to know if it had been located and returned to the Cathedral archive, and many peregrinos were unaware of the theft. Since returning I have not had the opportunity to do research on the topic, another task for the next few weeks.

Cultural Catastrophe!

St. James (Santiago) image in Codex Calixtinus (Wikipedia Commons)

After months of not writing, I had planned to begin adding materials to this blog as I prepare to once again walk the Camino Frances to Santiago de Compostela this coming autumn. I had not planned to begin by reporting a great crime against the human patrimony. One goal of my forthcoming pilgrimage was to view the Codex Calixtinus, one of the most important documents of medieval Europe, but alas that is not to be. Last weekend the document was stolen from the archive of the Cathedral.

On the Gocamino news group, I posted the following:
Whatever its status and history as the first European travel guide, loss of the Codex is a cultural tragedy. One of the most important extant collections of medieval music, the Codex Calixtinus is a key document for students of musicology. Other materials contained in the stolen document are equally important for scholars in various fields of medieval studies. This theft is at least on a par with the theft of a first folio of Shakespeare from Durham University (see the fascinating display currently on view at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC) or the art works taken from the Gardiner Museum in Boston as one of the great crimes against the human patrimony committed against an institution devoted to preservation of that heritage.

One must hope the Codex Calixtinus is returned to the cathedral archive quickly and undamaged, and that it is not broken into pages and then sold to unscrupulous dealers who then sell them to unethical collectors in a vast, and one hears hideously lucrative, market for purloined works of art. Once in that market documents tend to disappear forever. Should the document be irretrievably lost, there are at least good quality reproductions for scholars and pilgrims to see, though those can never convey the thrill of examining the original nor contain the possibility of discovery some new scholarly examination may uncover. Meanwhile the Cathedral needs to evaluate its security precautions, for its archive and treasury contain numerous other items of potentially great value in the illicit art market.

A frequent contributor to discussions of matters related to the pilgrimage to Santiago has posted an extensive commentary on the importance of the Codex Calixtinus to that pilgrimage at her blog Amawalker.

Session VII The Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

One of the three great Roman Catholic Pilgrimages, Santiago de Compostela in far northwest Spain, not far from Fisterra (Finisterre) or the end of the earth and the westernmost point in Continental Europe, has been attracting pilgrims for more than 1000 years. Those pilgrims are attracted to the purported tomb of the Apostle James the Greater, Santiago, in the crypt of the Cathedral. The cathedral itself is a masterpiece of the Romanesque now inside a Baroque facade. 

Session VII looks at the story of St. James the major, the legend of the translocation of his corpse from Palestine to Galicia, a very little of the history of the period between that event and the beginning of pilgrimage, the evolution of that pilgrimage and a few of the legends and other bits of folklore related to the pilgrimage through the ages. The session concludes with a present day walk along the main route, the Camino Frances, from the French-Spanish border to Santiago and beyond to Fisterra.

 

Outline

The Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

I. The story of St. James the Greater (also called St. James the Major), Santiago in Castellano.

A. Disciple of Christ

B.    Evangelist in Iberia?

C. Martyrdom

D.  Translocation and burial 

II. The evolution of the pilgrimage

A. "Rediscovery" of the tomb

B. Reconquista

C.  Resettlement of the wastes

D. The Benedictines and the route

III. The folklore of the pilgrimage

A. Origins of "Compostela"

B. The legends of Santo Domingo de la Calzada

IV. The Camino today

A. Marking the route

B. Fr. Elias Valina Sampedro

V. Walking the Camino - slide show with commentary

Some Camino de Santiago Readings

There are many, many worthwhile books, not to mention articles, on the Camino de Santiago in English and a vastly larger number when other western European languages are added.  I am only including works in English, and this is a tiny sample of the works I have found interesting or useful. At some point I may post a more comprehensive bibliography and "webography'," but this is a start.

I. Books on the History and folklore of the Camino.

Melczer, William. 1993. The Pilgrim's Guide to Santiago de Compostela. New York. Itaklica Press. ISBN 0-934977-25-9. This is a translation of Book 5 of the Codex Calixtinus "The Pilgrims Guide to The Road to Santiago" by Amery Picaud along with extensive notes and comments. Melczer's book is essential reading for anyone with an serious interest in the Camino.

II. Guidebooks for Walking or Bicycling the Camino de Santiago.

There are numerous guides in all major Western European languages, and even some in minor tongues like Swedish and Norwegian, with practical information on walking or bicycling the Camino. The best of them are frequently updated. As is often the case with travel guides, the most thorough and informative are the ones in German. The most useful ones in English are updated annually and published by the Confraternity of St. James. I am not listing guidebooks here, but if you are interested in actually walking or bicycling the route or a part of it please contact me for suggestions. I am not presently aware of any books for someone who wants to traverse the distance by mule, donkey or on a horse.

III. Sightseeing Guides

Gitlitz, David M. and Davidsohn, Linda Kay. 2000. The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago: The Complete Cultural Handbook. New York: St. Martins. ISBN 0-312-25416-4. Compiled by a University of Rhode Island professor of Jewish studies and his wife, this guide is now out of print, a little outdated, and of dubious reliability in places, but it is the most comprehensive guide to sights along the route available in English. If you are able to read Spanish, French, German, or Dutch there are are much better cultural guides available in those languages.

Jacobs. Michael. 2002 (2nd edition). The Road to Santiago de Compostela. London: Palas Athene. ISBN 1-873429-42-8. An essential, and transportable, book for anyone interested in the marvelous architecture on the road to Santiago.

IV. Pilgrim Experiences.

Many pilgrims, beginning with Amery Picaud in the Middle Ages, have written fine books on the experience of walking the Camino. Here is a small sample of ones I find worthwhile (there are many others).

Starkie. Walter. 1957. The Road to Santiago. London. John Murray.  Long out of print, this is my sentimental favorite book in this category for Starkie, a well-known writer in the 1950s and 60s, made the trek long before the modern infrastructure became available. A little hard to find but well worth reading!

Bentley, James. 1988. The Way of St. James: A Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. London. Pavilion. ISBN 1-85793-002-9. Another work by a pilgrim who wrote prior to the recent popularity of the Camino, Bentley offers some sense of walking when it was still difficult.

Hitt, Jack. 1994, 2005. Off the Road: A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Route Into Spain. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-6111-9. Reading this book along with Ellen Feinberg's listed next convinced me that a walk to Santiago was possible and quite possibly enjoyable too. A former New York Times reporter, Hitt makes his account both informative and humorous.

Feinberg, Ellen O. 1989. Following the Milky Way: A Pilgrimage Across Spain. Ames: Iowa State University Press. ISBN 0-8138-0146-X. See note for Hitt. Feinberg (now Ellen Aviva) received a Ph.D. in Anthropology at Princeton for work done on the pilgrimage and has subsequently written several interesting works, including at least one novel, with Camino themes.

Moore, Tim. 2005. Travels With My Donkey: One Man and His Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago. New York: St. Martin's. ISBN 0-312-32082-5. As the subtitle might suggest, Moore tries very hard to be funny and does not often succeed, but he does have some interesting observations about travelling the Camino with an animal. In the Middle Ages it was common, but today it is rare and difficult.

Rudolph, Conrad. 2004. Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-73127-8. This brief book with some lovely photographs written by a Professor of Art History at the University of California, Riverside received less than glowing reviews, but I find it readable and interesting.

V. Two Toxic Books--Fantasy Fiction on Camino Topics--and a Strange Book.

Two figures of popular culture have written works on the Camino that have served to attract countless "pilgrims" as the books report on experiences that informed commentators suggestwere unlikely to have happened and should cause both books, not just Coehelo's, to be categorized as fantasy fiction in libraries and bookstores.

Coelho, Paulo. 1992. The Pilgrimage. London: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-7225-3487-6. The Brasilian writer famous for several fantasy novels claims to have walked part of the Camino and this is his report. Informed sources suggest that the book is a novel with few, if any ties to actual experience, and most bookstores sell it as a novel. It has served to attract huge numbers of Brasilian pilgrims to the Camino

MacLaine, Shirley. 2000. The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit. New York: Pocket Books. 

The dancer and actress claims to have walked the Camino with, it is reported, a camera crew complete to costumers and make-up artists as well as an advance publicity team, a crew so large it was nearly impossible for others to walk at the same time (in contrast to a pilgrimage by the actor Martin Sheen who walked alone and nearly incognito around the same time). Upon completion of the route, she returned to produce a film and this fantasy novel about the Camino. This vile book has, in its turn, attracted hordes of "new age pilgrims" to the Camino.

Nooteboom, Cees. 1992. Roads to Santiago. New York: Harbourt Brace. ISBN 0-15-100197-9. Often mentioned as a potential Nobel laureate in literature, the Dutch writer (whose family name translates as "Nut Tree") has produced what is for me a profoundly unsatisfying book on his personal journey to Santiago, one made by car and covering most of Spain. The book has been well-received and has been influential in the recent surge of interest on the Camino, though it is a decidedly unusal take on the topic of the pilgrimage to Santiago.

If I can find time sometime soon, I plan to post a list of websites on Camino topics. Meanwhile the Confraternity of St. James website noted above is an excellent place to start if you want to engage in a web seach on the subject.

Comments including some interesting weblinks on Pilgrimage Music

I am not planning to post an outline for Session VI on 30 April as the session will be spent looking at some pictures of architecture and works of art with links to pilgrimage as well as listening to some music related to pilgrimage. There is no didactic goal beyond the recognition that some of the world's greatest works of architecture, art and music were created because of pilgrimage.

There are many way to investigate the topic of pilgrimage and the arts, and there are numerous websites dealing with the various works. I shall post at least two and perhaps three blog entries, beginning with this one on music.

Music:

The Codex Calixtinus housed in the Library of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is a fascinating compendium from the middle ages, a collection of theological texts, a music book, and what is arguably the first travel guide wver written in Western Europe about which we shall have alittle more to say in session VII on the Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. We shall listen to a little of the music from the Codex in Session VI, and there is a good website from Vanderbilt University's Music Department on the Codex

Naxos, one of the most successful and innovative publishers of classical music, has a number of CDs with pilgrimage music including a fine recording " The Black Madonna: Pilgrim Songs from the Monastery of Montserrat" based on the Llibre Vermell housed at the Catalan abbey and a collection of pilgrimage music from the route to Jerusalem "On the Way to Bethlehem (Music of the Medieval Pilgrim)." We shall listen to short excerpts from both of those recordings.

Considered the preeminent interpreters of early music, the Catalan musicians  Jordi Savall (conductor, violist and master of several other instruments) and his wife the soprano Montserrat Figueras have individually and together with their groups including Cappella Reail de Catalunya and Hesperion XXI an unmatched discography. Several of their recordings relate to pilgrimage music, and most of their work is on CDs issued by Alia Vox.

A traditional recording of music from the Codex Calixtinus by the male Ensemble Organum "Compostela ad Vesperas Sancto Iacobi" gives a sense of what it must have been like to hear the music of pilgrimage in one of the great cathedrals or Abbey churches of the Middle Ages. The recording is available from Ambroisie (do not have a website address). The fantastic group has also recorded albums of music from the Church at Rome.

While most music related to pilgrimage was written for and performed by men, several female groups have issued stunning recordings. The now disbanded American quartet Anonymous 4  issued "Miracles of Sant'Iago: Medieval Chant and Polyphony from the Codex Calixtinus"available from  Harmonia Mundi.  The French choral group Ensemble Discantus issued "Compostelle: Le Chant de l'Etoile" one of my favorite recordings and available from Jade. (I had some difficulty pulling up the website). 

Pilgrims came from all over Europe, and a German recording of considerable interest is by the group Ensemble für Fruhe Musik Augsburg "Auf Jakobs Wegen: Medieval Pilgrimage to Santiago" (The website is only available in German).

Various other groups from Spain, France and elsewhere have issued recordings of pilgrimage music. A Microsoft, Yahoo or Google search using words like Compostela, Santiago, and pilgrimage along with "music" will yield a large number of hits. If I can find time toward the end of our term, I will post a column I wrote some time ago and update my recommendations for pilgrimage music,

When Tower went out of business, the best stocked local supplier of such recordings disappeared, but Melody Records just off Dupont Circle in DC is a good place to shop, and they will special order titles not in stock.  They are the only reliable supplier of classical music in the DC area I have been able ot locate. (Please do not buy from Amazon--they are quickly driving all of the good book and record stores in the US out of business! Support local merchants like Melody when possible.)