This year marks the holy year of the city Santiago de Compostela, when the Feast Day of Saint James the Greater—July 25—falls on a Sunday. This program revisits the magnificent Romanesque structure with a virtual presentation reconstructing the Romanesque Cathedral, talks, and a musical feast featuring pieces from the famed Codex Calixtinus, performed by the group Lionheart.
Professor Elizabeth Brown launches the multifaceted Celebration of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela with a rich reflection on the resonance of the pilgrimage and the Cathedral. She speaks on the history of the Santiago de Compostela's fame, considering the Compostela's great publicist archbishop Diego Galmirez, and his success in France, and the book "the Jacobus", which helped establish the fame of the eponymous saint throughout Europe. Brown's history of the relationship between Saint James and the Compostela is fresh and humorous, and she offers new insight into how the Cathedral of Santiago came to be one the preeminent destination for pilgrimage in the region, triumphing over Toledo and Saint-Denis.
Elizabeth A. R. Brown, Professor of History, Emerita, The City University of New York; introduced by Roberto Varela Fariña, Regional Minister of Culture and Tourism, Gallacian Government
Learn more about pilgrimage in medieval Europe:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pilg/hd_pilg.htm
Learn more about medieval manuscripts on the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/book/hd_book.htm
