The Way to Rome in the Medieval Welsh Imagination

Abstract

This article examines how Rome, and the journey(s) to Rome, are represented in two autobiographical accounts of Gerald of Wales De rebus a se gestis ‘On the Things He Has Achieved’ (ca. 1210–1215) as well as in De iure et statu Meneuensis Ecclesiae ‘On the Rights and Status of the Church of St Davids’ (ca. 1218) on the one hand, and in the anonymous medieval Welsh prose tale Breudwyt Maxen Wledic ‘Dream of Maxen Wledic’ (ca. 1215–1217) on the other. The article traces the engagement of these sources with the idea of Rome as centre of power, as well as with their apparent reliance on the contextual knowledge of their intended audience(s). It will be shown that despite the apparent differences between the texts—Latin autobiographical accounts on the one hand and vernacular legendary material on the other—and the different nature of power they engage with—ecclesiastical on the one hand and secular imperial on the other—the approaches to the description of Rome and to the use of geographical and topographical space in the narrative are quite similar.