Southern Italy's strategic location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean gave it a unique position as a frontier for the major religious faiths of the medieval world, where Latin Christian, Greek Christian and Muslim communities coexisted. In this study, the first to offer a comprehensive analysis of sanctity and pilgrimage in southern Italy between 1000 and 1200, Paul Oldfield presents a fascinating picture of a politically and culturally fragmented land which, as well as hosting its own important relics as important pilgrimage centres, was a transit point for pilgrims and commercial traffic. Drawing on a diverse range of sources from hagiographical material to calendars, martyrologies, charters and pilgrim travel guides, the book examines how sanctity functioned at this key cultural crossroads and, by integrating the analysis of sanctity with that of pilgrimage, offers important new insights into society, cross-cultural interaction and faith in the region and across the medieval world.

This book integrates the analysis of sanctity with that of pilgrimage, offering important new insights into society, cross-cultural interaction and faith.

About the Author
Paul Oldfield is Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Manchester. His previous publications include City and Community in Norman Italy (Cambridge, 2009).


Book Information
ISBN 9781107000285
Author Paul Oldfield
Format Hardback
Page Count 322
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 580g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 158mm * 22mm