The Art, Science , and Technology of Medieval Travel

The sixth volume of the Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art (AVISTA) contains an eclectic mix of essays on medieval travel. The book is divided into four parts, covering vehicles and logistics, art, maps and navigational instruments, with subjects ranging from devotional images in psalters to the transport of bricks. The introduction contains an excellent summary of the subject and adds a number of reflections, especially on long-distance journeys such as those undertaken by the Vikings, pilgrims, crusaders, and remarkable travellers such as Marco Polo. We are reminded that many travellers’ accounts survive, real and imaginary, as do comments on the benefits of travel despite the difficulties; the fourteenth-century poet, Eustache Deschamps, observed that a man who had not been overseas knew nothing. While a number of the essays are reworkings of studies already published, they contain interesting insights. Julian Munby shows that the proliferation of coaches in sixteenth-century Europe was caused not by technical advance, but by a change in fashion; in Hungary, riding in coaches—the name derives from the town of Kocs between Vienna and Budapest—became an acceptable activity for men; previously carriages had been for girls. David H. Kennett examines late medieval English building accounts for evidence about the transport of bricks, concluding that road transport was more common than has often been thought. Bernard S. Bachrach discusses two key aspects of the Carolingians’ ability to undertake military operations throughout much of Europe: the organisation of estates for the war effort through the provision of special army carts and ‘military mapping’—essentially where to go and how to get there, considering the possible role of maps, itineraries and Roman roads

Art · Art history · Library science · Nothing · Subject (documents · The Imaginary · Visual arts · Classics · Computer Science · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Philosophy · Psychology

• The Medieval World View

  Open Access•Evelyn Edson•History Compass•2010

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