Aymeric Picaud
Aymeric Picaud was a 12th-century French scholar, monk and pilgrim from Parthenay-le-Vieux in Poitou. He is most widely known today as being the suspected author of the Codex Calixtinus, an illuminated manuscript giving background information for pilgrims travelling the Way of St. James. In essence, he wrote one of the earliest known tourist guidebooks.Among Basque scholars, Amyeric's account of his journey to Santiago de Compostela is considered as highly important because it contains some of the earliest Basque words and phrases of the post-Roman period.
The words and phrases he recorded are:
- andrea 'lady '
- Andrea Maria, glossed as 'mother of God'
- aragui 'meat'
- araign 'fish'
- ardum 'wine', assumed to represent nasalised
- aucona 'dart'
- belaterra 'the priest'
- echea 'the house'
- elicera 'to church'
- ereguia 'the king'
- gari 'wheat'
- iaona 'the master'
- Iaona domne Iacue 'St James'
- ogui 'bread'
- Urcia, glossed as 'God' by Picaud
- uric 'any water'
