Medieval Itineraries: Sigeric

The Anglo-Saxon Sigeric (also known as Siric or Serio) was archbishop of Canterbury from AD989 until his death in AD994. His journey back from Rome after receiving his pallium (either AD989 or AD990) is recorded in a manuscript dating from the time of Sigeric's episcopate, now in the British Library, part of the Cotton collection: Tiberius B.V., folios 23-4, Adventus Archiepiscopi Nostri Sigerici ad Romam. The journey is also referenced in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: "989: Siric was this year invested archbishop, and went afterwards to Rome after his pall." (Ingham translation)

It's a simple list of the mansiones, called submansiones in the document, used. In Italy he followed the Lombard road over Monte Bardone, the Via Poenina and the Gt St Bernard, and through France more or less on the Roman roads to the Channel.

More details

spreadsheet | detailed map (79 placemarks)

External resources

• British Library: catalogue entry
• An annotated transcription of "this curious Itinerary" was included in the Memorials of St Dunstan, volume LXIII of the 19th-century Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores, edited by William Stubbs. A facsimile of this is available to view online or to download at the Gallica website of the French National Library. See pp391-5.