Welcome to this special double issue (3 & 4) of Peregrinations featuring two exciting groups of articles that, despite their disparate themes, present some surprising intersections, especially calling our attention to the commonalities in medieval and contemporary thinking, while the various scholars share insights about specific works in context. Issue 3 includes a guest-edited series on Placing the Middle Ages: Towards a Geography of Material Culture along with articles and contributions on other diverse topics.

Led by Mickey Abel and Jennifer Way, the scholars of the Geography/Culture set, explore how combining geography’s scientific methodologies with the social emphasis of cultural geography opens up an entirely new avenue of art historical research. The editors present the topic in a thought-provoking introduction, followed by a series of distinctive articles that productively exploit this new methodology. Eileen McKiernan-Gonzalez explores how geography affects meaning in specific visual forms in Romanesque Arágon, while Maureen Quigley sheds light on how the imaginative concept of place might affect the reception of a crucial manuscript that was focused on romantic geography and the Crusades. Tracy Chapman Hamilton masterfully highlights the conjunctions of politics and place as manipulated by queenly patronage of deliberately sited edifices that enhanced negotiation of complex political issues in late Capetian France. That this sort of negotiation and political statement (this time monastic) continues in modern-day scholarship is posited by Janet Marquardt in her introduction of the Zodiaque series. Rounding out the discussion is the article by Kim McCarty, Brittney Gregory, and Mickey Abel, who collaborated to set out the challenges and discoveries expected and elicited through such a multidisciplinary approach to mapping our architectural heritage.

Other featured articles in Issue 3 explore a wide range of topics. Jennifer Lee re-considers the interpretation of pilgrim souvenirs through her analysis of the writing of Herbert of Bosham, offering possible enhancements to medieval scholarship through further investigation of these “minor” works. In briefer musings, Mark Hall reports on a further discovery of a special foot bath for visiting pilgrims, and Asa Mittman presents the Digital Mappaemundi, offering an entirely new approach to the way we can work with medieval maps.

Issue 4 is another exciting compilation of a guest-edited special topic, Bayeux Tapestry Revisited with the addition of several reports and some book reviews. John Micheal Crafton has guest edited the series of articles on some of the most exciting new research on the Bayeux Tapestry, an artifact that continues to intrigue and to lend multidisciplinary insights. Shirley Ann Brown examines the surprising role that the Vikings played in the tapestry, while Gale R. Owen-Crocker explores the powerful argument of Roman influence on the iconography and presentation of the work. How the tapestry blended together text and images, history and literature, politics and religion, as well as other mixed crafts and media is now further amplified and understood through multimedia and hypertext as presented in an unexpected way by John Micheal Crafton. The historical context of the tapestry’s possible use and display and its possible reception is investigated by Richard M. Koch, who considers it as a religious object, and by Jennifer N. Brown, who further investigates its relationship to the Vitae of Edward the Confessor.

Also featured in this issue are Mark Hall’s research note on the intriguing grave slab in Rome depicting a fully outfitted pilgrim and Katrien Lichtert’s introduction to the large-scale project of visualizing the urban landscape of the Southern Netherlands during the Late Medieval and Early Modern Period undertaken by the University of Ghent and the University of Antwerp. These are joined by reviews of two important scholarly books by Peter Dent and Asa Mittman.

Both issues share in the Short Notices and Announcements and Discoveries sections. In the former, Asa Mittman probes the use of Google Earth with concomitant moral issues and delights, while Adelaide Trezzini introduces the beautiful and historic Via Francigena to potential future pilgrims. Other announcements highlight a new publication by the Flemish Confraternity of Santiago de Compostela; free, downloadable books on medieval art, and more. Discoveries presents some of the latest medieval archaeological finds, including hitherto undiscovered churches and rich burials.

The Links page is (ever) expanding, here featuring www.lescheminsdumontsaintmichel.com : The Pilgrimage Road to Mont-Saint-Michel. New Journals (under Publishing Opportunities) welcomes five new members of the scholarly community, including the beautiful Revista Romanico and the Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art. We also, as usual, list calls for papers, conferences, research announcements and more. We would also like to thank Sylvia Nilsen for her beautiful and informative Photo Essay on artists’ marks along the pilgrimage road. Our Photobank continues to grow with copyright-free images -- all downloadable for use in research and teaching.

For future issues we are actively seeking articles on any aspect of medieval art and architecture, including: long and short scholarly articles, scholarly book reviews, review articles on issues facing the field of medieval art history, interesting notes and announcements, useful website recommendations, new archeological discoveries, and recent museum acquisitions as well as calls for papers and conference listings. We are interested in publishing articles that will undergo double-blind review as well as those which are subject only to regular editing process, including articles that are the result of preliminary research. We always welcome copyright-free images to add to our photobank, to be shared and used by anyone in the classroom and in their research. To round out the scholarly portion of the journal, we are also seeking short, amusing excerpts from medieval sources, comments on the Middle Ages in movies and popular culture, etc.

Cover Image: Author presenting his manuscript to Jeanne de Bourgogne accompanied by her mother, Mahaut, comtesse d?Artois (Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek, ms. St. Peter, perg. 92, Breviculum seu parvum Electorium by Thomas le Myesier, fol. 12).

Again, welcome to Peregrinations. Any suggestions or comments you have concerning the journal would be most welcome. Please feel free to e-mail us at: blicks@kenyon.edu, rtekippe@westga.edu or olsonv@uncw.edu.