Mirabilia Urbis Romae
Rompilgerführer writings to guide a visit to the city of Rome and its sanctuaries ( churches, chapels, places of memory, relics, indulgences, etc.) are used.
Pilgrimages to Rome in the first millennium
Since the 2nd and 3rd centuries pilgrims have demonstrated for Rome; as the so-called red wall at the grave of Peter in the Vatican is littered with graffiti.
Since the 5th century then are also descriptions of what the churches could find a pilgrim inside and outside the city. Likewise emerged descriptions of the city, its churches and antiquities that were not applied directly for use by pilgrims, the Itinierarium Einsidlense from the 9th century, the long time had been considered in the research as a pilgrim guide. Also registered pilgrims, their rides down along with Itinierarien the same, for example Sigeric of Canterbury, who visited Rome in the years 990-994. In addition, also have received descriptions that do not have the character of a pilgrim report, but shed light on the ecclesiastical topography of the city, the tour report of the Jew Benjamin of Tudela (Spain, Navarre ) from the 3rd quarter of the 12th century.
During the time of the Crusades, the number of pilgrims to Rome subsided significantly, the way into the center of Christian history, to the holy places of the life and death of Christ was open again; came to the competition from other sanctuaries, of which certainly Santiago de Compostela was the most important.
Pilgrimages to Rome after 1300
Had the Roman pilgrimage waned in the 12th and 13th centuries, the number of pilgrims grew in 1300 by leaps and bounds. According to the report of Cardinal Stefaneschi the curia was even surprised by this development: the proclamation of the Holy Year was - the Cardinal on - an ecclesial response to a movement "from below", that is, the salvation of man longing; approximately 200,000 people are said to have visited the city this year, according to medieval chroniclers.
The following particular those very blue moon, the rhythm of the flow of pilgrims to Rome: For every holy year is to observe a more than significant increase in the number of pilgrims. But the numbers of pilgrims who visited Rome in the intervals remained consistently high.
The Holy Year in 1500 under Alexander VI. then marked a high point of the year of jubilee; the now well-organized Pilgerbetrieb allowed hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who visit the city. At this event even thousands of copies were in Rome produced by Pilgrim leaders in different languages (Latin, German, French, Spanish, Italian). But already ended with the sack of Rome in 1527 and the Reformation, the age of the classic medieval pilgrimage, and even the medieval pilgrim's guide made another form of travel literature course.
The pilgrim's guide
The itinerary Einsidlense
In the library of the Abbey of Einsiedeln is manuscript Codex 326, a signature of the 9th century, kept, the so-called Itinerarium Einsidlense, directions for pilgrims to Rome. Its author is not known, not even if he himself was a pilgrims to Rome or has compiled his collection only from older reports.
The itinerary is for individual routes ordered by the city, so almost a modern guide. The author was probably doing a schematic map of the late antique and early medieval Rome as an aid. Divided into twelve routes describes the itinerary ancient and Christian and the once pagan and now Christianized Rome's monuments: Route I - A porta sci Petri usque ad scam Luciam in Orthea; Route II porta sci Petri usque ad Portam Salariam; Route III leads A porta Numentana usq. Roman Forum; Route IV a porta Flaminea usque Via Lateran; IV route of the porta Flaminea (now in Piazza del Popolo ) to the Forum; Itinerary VII A porta Aurelia usq. ad Portam Praenestinam; the Eighth Route A porta sci Petri usque porta Asinaria Although in Itinierarium there is no real pilgrims report, but it belongs in the broadest sense as a description of medieval Rome in the series of this group.
Mirabilia Romae - Graphia Libellus - Historia Romana
The so-called Mirabilia Romae are often a generic term, in which not only the actual Mirabilia, Mirabilia Romae vel but also the historia et descriptio urbis Romae potius, as well as the Indulgentiae ecclesiarum urbis Romae and the stationes ecclesiarum urbis Romae be included. The oldest manuscripts of the Indulgentiae date from the 12th to the stationes from the 8th century; a broader tradition is for both to until the 14th century. Already at the time of their occurrence in the mid- 12th century writings bear the name of the Mirabilia Romae. Your earlier text population is so uniform that it becomes a original text could be reconstructed. The dating of the original text varies in the research from the late 10th to the mid 12th century. There is no dispute as to whether parts of the Mirabilia are older than the 12th century; an early form of the Mirabilia is without a primary or secondary tradition, however, untenable. The attempt was made in connection with the renovatio of the Roman Senate to bring the emergence of the Mirabilia in conjunction as renewed interest in ancient Roman history; this theory is now largely exhausted.
The first part of the original text lists, sorted by subject, the ancient buildings in the city - walls, towers, gates, etc., complemented by their geographical anchors. In its second part the Mirabilia treat legends that refer to the ancient structures, such as the vision of Augustus from the birth of Christ for the Capitol and the church of S. Maria Ara Coeli.
The third part of the Mirabilia is a kind of tour of the city, in the mainly ancient temples and palaces in topographic, non-systematic classification are as in the first part, called; However, there are some deviations that do not fit in this tour.
Written is the Mirabilia but are also certainly not as a guide for a pilgrimage audience: First, the main interest of the writing lies more with ancient as contemporary Rome - which is often used only for topographical classification - on the other hand had the pilgrimages to Rome at the time when the Mirabilia not yet assumed larger proportions. The earliest manuscripts of the Mirabilia are also large size and therefore difficult to handle for the use of a traveler. Nine Miedema denotes the Mirabilia as " more of a list of ancient monuments and legends of Rome "; they would have the " character of a reference book or a description of the ancient splendor of the city ," behind the resign the actual Roman topography. Fictional and real topography mingle in the Mirabilia and enter the fictional places a claim to reality.
Urbis Romae graphia Aurea
The Urbis Romae Graphia Aurea is an assembly of the Mirabilia and the Graphia libellus. Brought you to a legendary founding of Rome by Romulus history as a descendant of the Trojan refugees a radical derived from the Mirabilia text; the third part dealt with the imperial court ceremonial ( Graphia libellus ). The latter is essentially of Isidore of Seville Etymologiae dependent. The time of origin Graphia as such composition from Mirabilia and Graphia libellus is to be set after 1156.
The Indulgentiae urbis Romae
Since the mid-12th century are descriptions of the Roman churches, their relics and indulgences available in them that bear since the 14th century the title Indulgentiae ecclesiarum urbis Romae. These are available in a wide tradition, but are not mutually consistent, which is why an independent origin from each other is accepted at different locations.
The 14th century saw a boom in the production of Indulgentiae, not least perhaps because of the first Holy Years 1300; in the 15th century, the descriptions of the churches were extended by legends, they also went in more detail on the relics and monuments of the individual churches.
The first dated printing the Indulgentiae stannt to 1475; This is considerably shorter than the manuscripts and incunabula: it covers only the seven main churches and a few other churches. Like all early Latin prints of this genre it comes from Rome itself
The text of the Indulgentiae still circulated in the 16th century, lost at this time but more broadly in the tradition: With the Reformation and the infamous Sacco di Roma 1527 pilgrimage to Rome lost since the 20s of the 16th century significantly more attractive, not least standing up for grabs certainly due to the practice of selling indulgences. Only with the Counter-Reformation, survived the pilgrimage to Rome and Rome ( Filippo Neri ) again.