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E00452: The Piacenza Pilgrim records his visit to the monastery of *John the Baptist (S00020) by the Jordan River (Palestine) and its two hospices. Account of an anonymous pilgrim, written in Latin, probably in Placentia (northern Italy), c. 570.

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posted on 2015-04-28, 00:00 authored by robert

Pilgrim of Piacenza, Itinerarium 12

First recension
Super Iordane non multum longe , ubi baptizatus est Dominus, monasterium est sancti Iohannis grande ualde, in quo sunt xenodochia duo.

'By the Jordan, not far from the place where the Lord was baptised is the very large monastery of saint John, which has two hospices.'

The second recension follows the text of the first without important modifications.

Text: Geyer 1898, 168 and 201. Translation: Wilkinson 2002, 137.

History

Evidence ID

E00452

Saint Name

John the Baptist : S00020

Saint Name in Source

Iohannes

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/John_the_Baptist/13729156

Type of Evidence

Literary - Pilgrim accounts and itineraries

Language

Latin

Evidence not before

551

Evidence not after

614

Activity not before

551

Activity not after

614

Place of Evidence - Region

Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia Palestine with Sinai

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Piacenza

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Piacenza Sardinia Sardinia Sardegna Sardinia Caesarea Maritima Καισάρεια Kaisareia Caesarea Kayseri Turris Stratonis

Major author/Major anonymous work

Pilgrim of Piacenza

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - monastic

Cult activities - Places Named after Saint

Hospital and other charitable institutions

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Pilgrimage

Source

This Itinerary was written by an anonymous pilgrim to Palestine who started and finished his journey in Placentia. He visited the East probably not long after the earthquake in 551, since he presents the destruction of Berytus (modern Beirut) in this year as a relatively recent event. He certainly visited Palestine before the Persian invasion in 614, since in his account Jerusalem is under Roman administration. The Itinerary is extant in two recensions. The first one is shorter and generally closer to the original, but sometimes it is the second recension which preserves the original text. Moreover, the additions that can be found in the second recension, unfortunately difficult to date, bear an interesting witness to the development of the cult of saints. The Itinerary can be compared with an earlier pilgrim's diary written in the 380s by another western pilgrim, Egeria. The Piacenza Pilgrim's itinerary is less detailed than her account, but shows the development of the cultic practices and infrastructure which had taken place in the course of two hundred years: there are more places to visit, more objects to see, and more saints to venerate.

Discussion

For the monastery of John the Baptist near the Jordan River, see Theodosius' account of it, some hundrd years earlier, where he tells us that it was built by the emperor Anastasius (E07914), and also the Mosaic Map of Madaba (E02524).

Bibliography

Edition: Geyer, P. (ed.), Antonini Placentini Itinerarium, in Itineraria et alia geographica (Corpus Chistianorum, series Latina 175; Turnholti: Typographi Brepols editores pontificii, 1965), 129-174. [Essentially a reprinting of Geyer's edition for the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 39, Wien 1898.] Englisheodosius' accounh translations: Stewart, A., Of the Holy Places Visited by Antoninus Martyr (London: Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, 1887). Wilkinson, J., Jerusalem Pilgrims Before the Crusades (2nd ed.; Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 2002).