CODE | Material |
Standard
|
Price | |
oR0558 | see description | Hand-made | 10.00 EUR |
|
How old?: 1150-1250 (?)
Finding place: London.
Place of provenance: Saint-Guilhem-Le-Desert (Gellone - France).
Details: h.: 40mm w. 36mm.
Meaning: Pilgrim badge from Saint-Guilhem-Le-Desert, (West from Montpellier, Herault
gorge) one of more important stops on way to Santiago de Compostela. St. Guilhem or
Wilhelm, was a cousin and trusted lieutenant of Charlemagne. He became famous for
defending Frankish Kingdom from Arabs invasion and for his deeds during Franks campaign,
which ended with capture of Barcelona. In 804 he founded an abbey at Gallone, where two
years later he became a monk. His tomb and piece of the True Cross kept there made the
abbey famous. It's peak of prosperity are XIIth and XIIIth century.
Pewter badges were first introduced as pilgrim souvenirs from different places of
Christian cult around Europe and the Holy Land. The earliest findings of this type comes from
about second half of XII th. century, fall of their popularity is beginning of XVI th. century.
They're closely connected with development of pilgrimages among Christians. Pilgrim
badges were a solid prove of finishing a long journey to places were once saints lived. About
XIV th. century secular badges also appeared.
ATTENTION: dates showed in this catalogue tells only how old was the material used for the
original. It doesn't mean that the badge was used only then.
The pewter badges as well as their descriptions are provided to us by Bartosz So³tysiak who bases them on historical sources.