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.
Aymeric's Basque material
Among Basque scholars, Aymeric's account of his journey to Santiago [de Compostela] is considered as highly important for the history of the Basque language because it contains some of the earliest Basque words and phrases.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'