Aimericus picaudus

Aimericus Picaudus , French : Aimeric Picaud, was, according to a letter attributed to Pope Innocent II , the bearer of the Codex Calixtinus to Santiago de Compostela .

The letter is part of the Liber Sancti Jacobi , the only document that reports on Picaud. In addition to information about his priesthood, his homeland, the town of Parthenay in Poitou , France , an activity as a chaplain in Vézelay and his companion Geberga at the handover of the book, his authorship for a hymn contained therein is mentioned. Assuming the correctness of this information, Picaud lived in the first half of the 12th century, since Innocent II became pope in 1130 and died in 1143. At an earlier or later point in time his letter would have lacked authenticity and a partial copy of the Codex Calixtinus by a Catalan monk is known from 1173, so the manuscript must have been in Santiago at this time.

Picaud is often seen as the author or at least the compiler of the Codex Calixtinus. Evidence for this is the positive description of the inhabitants of the Poitou - while at the same time disregarding other countries and their inhabitants, especially Navarre and the Navarres - and the expertise necessary for the preparation of such a text, which suggests a cleric.

literature

• Klaus Herbers : The Way of St. James. On the way to Santiago de Compostela with a medieval pilgrim guide . Narr, Tübingen 1986, ISBN 3-87808-312-2 .