The ''Einsiedeln Itinerary'' (or ''Itinerary of Einsiedeln'') is a ninth-century guide to the city of
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, ...
written for
Christian pilgrims. It was preserved in
Einsiedeln Abbey in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
.
The ''Itinerary'' was written by an anonymous author in Rome. It was later bound in a
codex
The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...
along with four other documents before being taken over the Alps to
Francia
The Kingdom of the Franks (), also known as the Frankish Kingdom, or just Francia, was the largest History of the Roman Empire, post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks, Frankish Merovingian dynasty, Merovingi ...
. This manuscript codex is now known as the Codex Einsiedelensis, because it was discovered in the Einsiedeln Abbey in the seventeenth century.
It is not known precisely when the document was created. It refers to the monastery of Santo Stefano, and so was written after its completion in the mid-eighth century. It makes no reference to the
Leonine City which was completed about 850, so scholars believe that it was written prior to this.
The ''Itinerary'' is written in eleven sections. Each section describes a crossing of Rome from one gate to another, describing the interesting sights to be seen on or near the particular route.
The text describes many buildings and monuments, and describes in detail the
walls of the city.
Historians study the ''Itinerary'' to discover information about the activities and motivations of ninth-century pilgrims as well as to add detail to historical knowledge of Roman buildings and institutions.
An appendix to the ''Itinerary'' includes transcribed inscriptions from monuments in the city, many of which no longer exist.
References
Further reading
*{{cite book, author=Betty Marie Wray, title=The Notitia and Curiosum and the Einsiedeln Itinerary: Translation of the Texts, Together with an Analysis and Comparison of Their Form and Content, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=02GRNwAACAAJ, year=1949, publisher=University of South Dakota.
External links
Scan of the Einsideln Itinerary
Ancient Roman geography
Christian pilgrimages