LAUSR

“The Sacred Landscape of Medieval Pilgrims” considers physical approaches to the monument (essays by Martin Lešák, Sabina Rosenbergová, and Katarína Kravčíková); “Liminal Zones and Pilgrimage Churches” analyzes doors, tympana, and entryways (essays by Foletti, Kravčíková, Stefano D’Ovidio, Cécile Voyer, Anna Kelblová, and Adrien Palladino); “Entering Sacred Space” deals with church interiors (essays by Pavla Tichá, Kelblová, and Voyer); “Materializing the Sacred” examines relics and reliquaries (essays by Cynthia Hahn, Palladino, Foletti, Tereza Kučerová, and Rosenbergová); and “Traveling, Seeing, Dreaming” builds on another research project directed by Michele Bacci (Fribourg University), and considers Venetian sea routes to the Holy Land (essays by Bacci, Angela Schiffhauer, Vesna Šćepanović, Gianvito Campobasso, Argyri Dermitzaki, and Sofia Zoitou). The essays vary in substance and depth, written by scholars at different stages in their careers. Essays by undergraduates and professors appear side by side without comment, a testament to the democratization of art history that the project envisions and espouses. The beautifully produced documentary, Quatre mois de rencontres: Du paysage à l’objet et à l’homme (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v1⁄4BBA7fEstB0s), an essential companion to the book, chronicles the group’s experience—it is also a standalone gem for any course on medieval art or pilgrimage. The film contextualizes visual analysis and medieval pilgrimage generally, but also provides insight into pilgrim life, the rhythm of which was so integral to this project. Like the book’s many photographs, the documentary provides a sense of human scale. If the essays are evidence of scholarly labor, the film is a self-conscious reminder that the intellectual, physical, and spiritual labor of such a project cannot be separated. Migrating Art Historians would have been ambitious under any circumstances, but in the current global environment it takes on added poignancy. As we grapple with the importance of physical presence, facing a reckoning in how we research, teach, and communicate our findings, this project offers a great deal of scholarly and pedagogical value, and also a great deal of heart.