Like many well-heeled pilgrims who trekked to Santiago de Compostela and the tomb of Saint James over the centuries, Bishop Diego de Guzmán (1566-1631) was blending honest piety with earnest business. […] Guzmán was ordered by King Felipe III to visit Compostela in fulfillment of the monarchs’ observance of the 1610 Jacobean Holy Year when the saint’s feast day fell on a Sunday. In his capacity of royal emissary bearing official gifts to honor Spain’s patron saint, Guzmán set out with numerous companions from Valladolid and concluded his journey at the Escorial royal palace. The travel journal he kept of his progress and personal experiences along the way, presented here in English translation for the first time, was framed with an eye toward producing an appropriate oral account for their majesties on his return to the court. --George D. Greenia, the translator.
