A fifteenth-century itinerary through Europe to Jerusalem

Professor Anthony Bale

Blog-post author Professor Anthony Bale, Birkbeck, University of London UK.  @RealMandeville

The Weye Unto Rome
and Soo to Venyse and to Jerusalem

 

Itineraries appear in surprising places in medieval manuscripts, often apparently out of context. One such example appears in San Marino, Henry E. Huntington Library MS EL 26.A.13 (f. 115v), a compilation of Middle English poetry, mostly by Lydgate and Hoccleve. The itinerary was added to the book but at more or less the same time as the rest of the book was written – that is, in the later fifteenth century. Thus the itinerary has no direct connection with the other texts in the book, although several of the texts reveal an interest in wisdom literature, translation, and proto-humanism.

This itinerary runs from the English-held town of Calais in northern France to Jerusalem. It is not in the correct order, and so possibly represents a remembered journey, or one excerpted from a written account but never undertaken (for instance, to go from Ghent to Mechelen via Maastricht would be a significant detour).

The manuscript was inscribed with the names of the scribe John Shirley (d. 1456), his wife Margeret, her sister Beatrice, and Beatrice’s husband Avery Cornburgh (d. 1487).

Ownership inscription of John and Margaret Shirley and Beatrice Cornburgh. San Marino, Henry E. Huntington Library MS EL 26.A.13, f. (v)v. http://www.digital-scriptorium.org

Cornburgh, originally from Cornwall and later of Gooshayes (Essex), was yeoman at the Lancastrian, Yorkist, and Tudor courts and a man of considerable power.[1] Cornburgh is not known to have travelled as a pilgrim but he did have a number of important maritime connections, and his nautical and mercantile expertise was valued at the royal court. In the 1460s Cornburgh was responsible for buying and provisioning several royal ships, he was appointed a sea captain in 1474, and seems to have taken a leading part in various expeditions, to Scotland, Germany, and France. Cornburgh was closely connected to John Howard, first Duke of Norfolk (d. 1485), one of the major ship-owners of fifteenth-century England.[2] Moreover, Cornburgh’s stepson, Thomas Oxeney, was appointed havener (keeper of the ports) in Cornwall and Devon, a role which would have brought him into contact with many foreign merchants and travellers. This is then a plausible context in which a traveler’s itinerary might have been added to an otherwise literary manuscript.

Whether or not the itinerary represents a real journey or an imaginative exercise remains moot: but it shows a curiosity and a knowledge about the world beyond England and the internationalism of late medieval English readers.

Itinerary from Calais to Jerusalem,San Marino, Henry E. Huntington Library MS EL 26.A.13 (f. 115v). http://www.digital-scriptorium.org

High quality images of the itinerary can be viewed in the manuscript here. I have transcribed the itinerary below, and supplied modern place-names where I’m confident about them. If you have suggestions about any of my queries – where is the island of ‘Ferre’ in the Aegean? Is ‘Mons Etena’ Mount Etna, but out of place? – then please do contact me.

The Weye Unto Rome and Soo to Venyse and to Jerusalem, from San Marino, Henry E. Huntington Library MS EL 26 A 13 (Part I), f. 115v:

Fflandris:        Calys

Gravelyng

Donckyrke

Newport

Brugges

Gaunt

Mastric

 

Braban:      Mawghlyng

Brossil

Ascot

Deest

Tendurmowth

Golke

 

Ducheland:    Acon

Coleyne

Gonne

Conence

Bynge

Mens

Andernac

Pobarba

Oderam

Wormys

Spyre

Menlynge

Jes[?]helyng

Kyppinge

Kemptoun

Nazareth

Landec

Myran

Trent

Venowan

Ostia

Myrendula

Castrum sancti Johannys

Castrum sancti laurens

Bolsen

 

Lombard:       Scarpore

Fllorens Sole

Bononya

fflorens

Cenys

Radocofye

Aquapendent

Viterbia

Sutrina

Turbaken

Roma

 

Venysian:     Aqua depo

Padwa

Plesance

Bonecovent

Fferrar

Venyse

 

Ylondys:         Modyn

Candif

Roodys

fferre

Lango

Corfew

Mons etena

Port Jaff

Ramys

Jerusalem

Calais

Gravelines

Dunkirk

Nieuwpoort

Bruges

Ghent

Maastricht

 

Mechelen

Brussels

Aarschot

Diest

Dendermonde

Juelich

 

Aachen

Koeln

Bonn

Koblenz

Bingen

Mainz

Andernach

Boppard

Odernheim

Worms

Speyer

Memmingen

Geislingen

Goeppingen

Kempten

Nassereith

Landeck

Murano

Trento

Verona

Ostiglia

Mirandola

San Giovanni in Persiceto

Borgo San Lorenzo

Bolzano

 

Scarperia

Firenzuola

Bologna

Florence

Siena

Radicofani

Acquapendente

Viterbo

Sutri

Baccano

Rome

 

Acqua di Po [River Po?]

Padua

Piacenza

Buonconvento

Ferrara

Venice

 

Methoni

Crete

Rhodes

? [Paros?]

Kos

Corfu

Mount Etna?

Jaffa

Ramla

Jerusalem


[1]
See. R. E. Stansfield, ‘A Duchy officer and a gentleman: The career connections of Avery Cornburgh (d.1487)’, Cornish Studies 19 (2011), 9-35. Cornburgh was married to Beatrice Oxeney (d. 1501), daughter of the wealthy London wool merchant and grocer William Lynne (d. 1421).

[2] On Howard see ODNB.

Author: uble235

Professor of Medieval Studies

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