Documents of Pilgrimage: Harley 2253 and the Palmers' Guild of Ludlow

Carter Revard localized the Harley scribe's primary sphere of activity to the Welsh-border town of Ludlow, upending earlier suppositions that his West Midlands provenance was more southward, that is, in Hereford, the region's episcopal seat. This article explores ties to Ludlow seen in his most important book, Harley 2253, both in the household accounts surviving on the flyleaves and, implicitly, in the influence of the borough's important charitable society, the Palmers' Guild, which dominated Ludlow civic life during the scribe's lifetime. Harley 2253's contents testify to an audience for documents of crusade and pilgrimage and reflect attitudes during national political turmoil that touched Ludlow directly. The article examines the Guild associations of men named in the writs, the Guild's 1329 incorporation as a political act when Roger Mortimer's power was ascendent, and the ways that several Harley texts appeal directly to Guild tastes.