Map of the journey described in the 3rd century document Itinerarium Burdigalense

''Itinerarium Burdigalense'' ("Bordeaux Itinerary"), also known as ''Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum'' ("Jerusalem Itinerary"), is the oldest known Christian ''

itinerarium An ''itinerarium'' (plural: ''itineraria'') was an ancient Roman travel guide in the form of a listing of cities, villages ( ''vici'') and other stops on the way, including the distances between each stop and the next. Surviving examples include ...

''. It was written by the "Pilgrim of Bordeaux", an anonymous

pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

from the city of Burdigala (now

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

) in the Roman province of

Gallia Aquitania Gallia Aquitania (, ), also known as Aquitaine or Aquitaine Gaul, was a list of Roman provinces, province of the Roman Empire. It lies in present-day southwest France and the Comarques of Catalonia, comarca of Val d'Aran in northeast Spain, wher ...

. It recounts the writer's journey throughout the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

to the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

in 333 and 334 as he travelled by land through northern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

valley to

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

; then through the provinces of

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

in the province of Syria-Palaestina; and then back by way of

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

Otranto Otranto (, , ; ; ; ; ) is a coastal town, port and ''comune'' in the province of Lecce (Apulia, Italy), in a fertile region once famous for its breed of horses. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, and

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Interpretation and analysis

According to the ''

Catholic Encyclopedia ''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...

'', the report is a dry enumeration of the cities through which the writer passed and the places where he stopped or changed horses, with their respective distances. For the Holy Land he also briefly notes the important events which he believes to be connected with the various places. Here he makes some strange blunders, as when he places the Transfiguration on Mount Olivet. His description of Jerusalem, though short, contains information of great value for the topography of the city.

Jaś Elsner John Richard "Jaś" Elsner (born 19 December 1962) is a British art historian and classicist, who is Professor of Late Antique Art in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford (since 2014), Humfry Payne Senior Research Fellow in Clas ...

notes that twenty-one years after

Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I * Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine g ...

legalized Christianity, "the

to which the pilgrim went had to be entirely reinvented in those years, since its main siteancient Jerusalemhad been sacked under the

Emperor Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

and refounded as

Aelia Capitolina Aelia Capitolina (Latin: ''Colonia Aelia Capitolina'' ɔˈloːni.a ˈae̯li.a kapɪtoːˈliːna was a Roman colony founded during the Roman emperor Hadrian's visit to Judaea in 129/130 CE. It was founded on the ruins of Jerusalem, which had b ...

." Elsner found to his surprise "how swiftly a Christian author was willing implicitly to re-arrange and redefine deeply entrenched institutional norms, while none the less writing on an entirely traditional model .e., the established Greco-Roman genre of travel writing">travel_writing.html" ;"title=".e., the established Greco-Roman genre of travel writing">.e., the established Greco-Roman genre of travel writing" The compiler of the itinerary cites the boundaries from one Roman province to the next and distinguishes between each change of horses (''mutatio'') and stopover place (''mansio''). He also differentiates between simple clusters of habitations (''vicus'') and the fortress (''

castellum A ''castellum'' in Latin is usually: * a small Roman fortlet or tower,C. Julius Caesar, Gallic War; 2,30 a diminutive of (' military camp'), often used as a watchtower or signal station like on Hadrian's Wall. It is distinct from a , which ...

'') or city (''

civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by Roman law, law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilitie ...

''). The segments of the journey are summarised; they are delineated by major cities, with major summaries at Rome and Milan, long-established centers of culture and administration, and Constantinople, refounded by Constantine only three years previously, and the "non-city" of Jerusalem. Glenn Bowman argues that it is a carefully structured work relating profoundly to Old and New Biblical dispensations via the medium of water and baptism imagery. Some scholars of early Christianity maintain that the book is not a first-person account of a Christian pilgrimage to Byzantine Palestine but a collection of secondhand stories compiled by someone living in Bordeaux.

Manuscripts

The ''Itinerarium'' survives in four manuscripts, all written between the 8th and 10th centuries. Two give only the Judean portion of the trip, which is fullest in topographical glosses on the sites, in a range of landscape detail missing from the other sections, and Christian legend.Elsner 2000:190.

References

External links

An overview (with maps) of the account
*

in a series of pages *

in one page

* *Bechtel, Florentine (1910).

Itineraria An ''itinerarium'' (plural: ''itineraria'') was an ancient Roman travel guide in the form of a listing of cities, villages ( ''vici'') and other stops on the way, including the distances between each stop and the next. Surviving examples include ...

. ''

''. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company. {{Authority control 4th-century books in Latin Travel books Prose texts in Latin Medieval literature Holy Land travellers 4th-century Christian texts Roman itineraries Pilgrimage accounts 331 Map types 4th-century maps

Interpretation and analysis

Manuscripts

See also

References

Further reading

External links