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'