Aline G. Hornaday wrote:
>
> Compostella is only 10 km. from the sea - many pilgrims e.g. from England
> would have gone there by boat, as English tour groups do now. Aline Hornaday
> (maybe I should add that I was in Compostella in 1998)
I am afraid to say that Compostela is by not means so close to the sea.
The most important (medieval) harbour was Padron (about 22 kms from
Santiago), where according to the legend the boat of Saint-James arrived
to Spain, but I must add that it is a river estuary, which means that
the "vieiras" (cockles) cannot be found there, being as they are sea
animals.
The problem with shells related to the iconography of Saint James is
far to have been solved: the first example we have is in Santa Marta de
Tera, a Romanesque church in Zamora (a secondary way to Compostela and,
yes, very far from any sea). But it does not mean that Tera is really
the oldest example, simply that we don't know of any other older than
it. One never knows, but think what happened with the Gnadenstuhl
iconography: until 1997 everyone agreed with the idea that this type
appeared c. 1125 in France, but the discovering of some c. 1090
(according to D. Park) English wall paintings with the Throne of Grace
dismounted the whole frame...
And I think it would be of interest having in mind that the "vieira",
aside from being a symbol of Venus, had been ocasionally used in
paleochristian iconography as a substitute of the nimbus.
Saludos
Carlos
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