An Illuminated English Guide to Pilgrimage in the Holy Land: Oxford, Queen’s College, MS. 357

Few medieval pilgrims’ guides were written in English; even fewer were illuminated. This chapter examines Oxford, Queen’s College, MS. 357, a manuscript made in the late fifteenth century in England, which possesses both qualities. The manuscript contains a variety of texts written in Latin and English including pilgrim’s guides, prayers to be said at holy sites in Palestine, travellers’ tales, and descriptions of miracles that have taken place at shrines. It is also exuberantly illuminated. The miniatures begin with an Annunciation and end with Christ in Judgment. These two images form the parentheses around the others in the manuscript, which depict sites in the Holy Land. The miniatures and decoration unite the disparate texts, turning the texts into a scale model of salvation history.