Toponimia alternativa nas guías do Camiño de Santiagotradicións peregrinais e pegadas na paisaxe

Abstract

This article begins with a general commentary on the problems caused by the term “Toponymy of the Way of Saint James” and on regarding the Way of Saint James as a toponomastic landscape. It then proceeds to explore various place names along the French Way (Via Francigena) which were referred to specifically in pilgrimage literature, that is, places that were named by pilgrims and travellers in ways that are different to those we find in local documents. Sometimes these alternative denominations were perpetuated over the centuries in pilgrimage literature, giving the impression of a shared onomastic tradition different to that which appears in local documents. Those names seem to have been coined within the environment of the pilgrimage and to be exclusive to it. Sometimes they transcended and even left their mark on the toponymic landscape itself.