During the summer of the year 2000 Medieval Art Historian Scott Montgomery and Early Modern
Historian Alice Bauer undertook the task of retracing the medieval pilgrimage route to Santiago
de Compostela. This book documents their thousand-mile sixty-seven-day journey walking from Le
Puy en Velay France to the tomb of St. James at Santiago de Compostela Spain. It also
examines the historical background and numerous historical lessons gleaned from the experience.
As academics Montgomery and Bauer sought to understand the daily life and experience of
medieval pilgrims through their own observations emotions and limbs. In exploring the
temporal and geographical aspects of the pilgrimage the authors discuss the varied motivations
and experiences of pilgrims then and now unraveling the connections between past and present
in the cultures and practices of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Terrain art
cuisine community emotion and belief are all explored in their manifold inter-relationships.
The authors also seek to situate the medieval art of the pilgrimage road within the context of
the pilgrims' experience.
