medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Pilgrim badges seem to have evolved from from pilgrim tokens not intended to be worn. These are already attested from late antiquity, e.g. the well known _ampullae_ of St. Menas from Abu Mina and the fired clay plaques, etc. from the cult sites of various stylite saints. A commonly used term for these allowing one to get beyond restriction by physical form is _eulogia_ ("blessing"). Brandie Ratliffe, "To Travel to the Holy", in Helen C. Evans, ed., _Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition, 7th-9th-Century_ (NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012 [dist. by Yale University Press]), pp. 86-88, provides a good introduction with some important scholarly references. See also Patricia Cox Miller, _The Corporeal Imagination: Signifying the Holy in Late Ancient Christianity_ (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), pp. 112-14, and, as an example of practice, Yoram Tsafrir, "Trade, Workshops and Shops in Bet Shean / Scythopolis, 4th-8th Centuries", in Marlia Mundell Mango, ed., _Byzantine Trade, 4th-12th Centuries: The Archaeology of Local, Regional and International Exchange_ (Ashgate, 2009), pp. 61-82, at p. 72. For the transition to metal, cf. the tenth-century mold, now in the University of Michigan's Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, for making metal pilgrim tokens associated with the cult of St. Symeon Stylites the Younger and a modern impression from that mold (photographs courtesy of Genevra Kornbluth):
http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/images/KelseySimeonMold.jpg
http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/images/KelseySimeonImp.jpg
and this eleventh(?)-century lead pilgrim's token associated with the same cult and now in the Cleveland Museum of Art:
http://tinyurl.com/88d6rj5
Best,
John Dillon
On 05/30/15, John Shinners wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Does anyone have recommendations for good articles or books on pilgrim badges? I'm especially interested in their evolution.
>
>
> Also, there is a detail in a picture--by Hinrik Bornemann my slide says--of a bearded man wearing a brimmed, black hat to which are pinned several pilgrim badges, but I have no title for the painting. I have dim memories that he is an anachronistic detail in a crucifixion scene, but I wouldn't bet on it. Does this ring any bells?
>
>
> Thanks,
> John
>
>
> --
> John Shinners
> Professor, Schlesinger Chair in Humanistic Studies
> Saint Mary's College
> Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
> Phone: 574-284-4494 or 574-284-4534
> Fax: 284-4855
> www.saintmarys.edu/~hust(http://www.saintmarys.edu/~hust)
>
> "Learn everything. Later you will see that nothing is superfluous." -- Hugh of St. Victor (d. 1141)
>
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