Summary Inexpensive as the pewter and latten badges were, the owners cherished them. Some donated them to churches and chapels as an expression of their gratitude for a safe return from a pilgrimage. Others kept their badges or passed them on to family or friends. As their meaning dissipated with the generations, they eventually ended up in dumps and waterfront deposits where they were partially preserved. Most surviving badges thus reappear upon archaeological excavation. At times, badges are found in a context indicative of their late-medieval purpose. The owner of the badge – either the pilgrim who bought it or the person who received it from the traveler – could use it in several ways (see chapter 2). The meaning of the badge was not unambiguous. On the contrary, the token had different levels of meaning that could influence its application. The badge could function as an amulet, often in combination with other talismanic objects or texts that held similar apotropaeic powers. Channeling the divine, the pilgrim’s sign could have beneficial effects on its owner, his home, and his relatives. The highly valued badges could also serve as enseignes, worn on a hat or scarf as decorative ornaments that could simultaneously express the affinities of the wearer with a cult site or saint. The badge’s material reflected the wearer’s status and priorities, ranging from prestige if made of silver to humility if made of cheap pewter. Last, the badge could serve diverse devotional goals. The religious image could give rise to contemplative thoughts and prayers, and help the owner contact the depicted saint through sincere veneration. In doing so, the owner could place himself under the saint’s protection and hoped for intercession in the next world. All these different associations defined the applications of the badge. Pilgrims’ tokens that evolved into contemporary contexts demonstrate the range of possible meaning ascribed to them: badges have been inserted in the walls of late medieval housing, cast on bells, hung as devotional panels, incorporated in prayer strings, or attached to the pages of devotional manuscripts. Each case is evidence of the owner’s personal interpretation of the badge.
Badges in Manuscript s
274
Beginning in the mid-fifteenth century, devotees attached badges to the parchment of manuscripts containing religious texts for devotional exercises (see chapter 3). Only stamped signs – documented from the 1450s onwards – qualified for attachment because these small and light memorabilia did not damage the page. The practice coincided with the growing inclination for tangible subjects of devotion, such as the five wounds of Christ or the Pieta, giving rise to a large production of statuettes and cheap imagery. Images of cult statues that had already proven their effectiveness in miracles were perfect for the part. The badges with their depictions of saints and miracle statues were a welcome addition to the prayers in the book as were other cult images like prints or miniatures. Traces of stamped pilgrims’ badges are discernable in manuscripts up to the first decades of the sixteenth century. The practice to attach badges to books vanished