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Understanding Pilgrimage through
Journals: An In-Depth Look at Viaggio in Ponente written
by Domenico Laffi Many of the gaps in the historical record of human civilization have been filled in by journals written by people about the events surrounding them. Such journals give a unique view into the life of an everyday person even in the most extreme of circumstances. An example of this is the log kept by Domenico Laffi, which he wrote as a travel guide for other pilgrims in the seventeenth century. Among the common events of river crossings and wells tucked away on high mountain peaks, Laffi writes a detailed description of cities, holy rights and the scientific and technological works he encounters during his travels. Laffi's record of his travels is very important to the understanding of how pilgrims themselves were the main means of information exchange at a time when most cities were isolated from one another. In order to put Laffi's experiences into perspective one must understand a bit about the man. Laffi was a priest in Bologna, Italy. Laffi never had his own parish, instead his passion was for traveling and he made the pilgrimage from Italy to Santiago de Compostela, Spain three times in his life. In addition to these journeys, he also made pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Lisbon. In his journal it is quickly apparent that his status as a priest gives him great advantages in education as well as the way in which he was treated, over his fellow pilgrims. An example of how differently he was treated occurs when Laffi and his companion join up with another pilgrim known only as "the Roman." The Roman is a more ordinary sort of pilgrim and must often stay in hostels with little food while Laffi and companion are entertained by Lords, Canons and other such nobility. While this was often the case, especially in the beginning of his journey, it was not always so. In between towns Laffi had his share of bad food and shelter. Laffi often describes nights in overpriced, decrepit inns and taverns; "we lodged in a hovel-it was so mean, you could not call it an inn. All we had to eat were a few chestnuts, with water to drink, and we had to sleep on a great heap of dried leaves" (Hall 36). His education comes out in the way in which he chooses to recount his experiences. Most guidebooks spend a lot of time describing the ascetics of a place. Laffi skims over such descriptions and spends a greater amount of time in describing buildings and cannons by means of measurements. Laffi measures everything and has very accurate and scientific information throughout his travels. On good example of his accuracy is his description of an archiepiscopal palace in Milan: "It [a palace in Milan] stands by itself and is in the shape of a square, though not exactly so, since the principal façade, which faces east, and the other that corresponds to it, are 210 braccia [1] wide, while the lateral ones are 180 br. The total length all around is therefore 780 br." (Hall 21). Many people would not have taken the time to even wonder at many of the measurements Laffi took. In this way Laffi gives his reader a very different picture of many of the buildings etc which pilgrims typically recorded. Because so many other authors have spent most of their time of descriptions of art and architecture as art, Laffi's work becomes important in adding a more mathematical element to the architecture. This becomes important to architects of his time who would be interested in incorporating building styles into their own works as well as to modern day historians attempting to recreate such structures from books and pieces of art. Pilgrims did not just relay information; they became information. Laffi recounts a scenario which demonstrates how pilgrims acted as signboards to their fellow travelers. As Laffi was walking along the road near the French-Spanish border he and his companions overtook a worn and badly beaten man. The man explained to them that rogues had attacked him at the border. Laffi and his companions gave the man alms and continued along their way. Soon Laffi encountered two monks who appeared to be in the same situation. The monks explained that they too had been attacked, but they had gone to the local justices and that the bandits had been found and punished. The monks and Laffi began to talk and Laffi found out that they were on their way to Italy. Upon hearing this Laffi told them where to find his family in Bologna and gave them a letter commending them to his family. In this way Laffi receives news of what is ahead of him along the Royal road, just as if he were listening to traffic updates every six minutes on a local radio station. Laffi is also the transmitter of news as he is acting as the Bologna yellow pages for his fellow travelers when he commends the monks to his family in Italy. Laffi also becomes a vesicle of information regarding religious ceremonies. Many other pilgrims experienced the same things Laffi did, like that of the ceremony of the Holy Shroud. Indeed, Laffi describes the square in which the ceremony was to take place as packed with people. People filled the square as well as the surrounding balconies and any other purchases they could find to see the shroud of Christ complete with a bloodstain from when Christ was stabbed while on the crucifix. Other ceremonies were rare and Laffi met them with surprise and ridicule. An example of this is when Laffi and his companion stumble onto a strange ceremony in a small French village. They follow the people parading through the street and soon realize that they are watching a wedding. Laffi and his companion are invited to the wedding celebration. They describe the events that followed with sarcasm and ridicule.:
Laffi's journal is important both in the context of his time as well as in the context of our own. He relates his travels as a guide to his fellow pilgrims, but the guide is also rich with information that the average person of his time did not have access to. His guide is an important source of information to modern historians in recreating the past from a more personal as well as a more scientific point of view. Laffi's journal truly demonstrates how a person can become information just as a signpost becomes the information written upon it.
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