Poems Via Romea Medieval pilgrim voices order on the Adriatic route to Rome

A sequel to my volume, Italian Poems: Voices from the Francigena Road, this volume contains dramatic monologues spoken by medieval pilgrims walking along the Via Romea on their way to Rome. The Via Romea stretched from Central Europe, wended along the Adriatic Sea, and then turned right over the mountains to Rome.

I wrote this volume during my residence in Macerata in the Fall of 2008. Many of the excursions that we took in Macerata and its environs were along or close to the pilgrim road to Rome. The Cantebury Tales and Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology have had their influence order on me here.

I have used Italian marbled paper and, occasionally hand-made papers from a local paper artist. My decorative lettering and illustrations were inspired by watermark art I first discovered in the Museum of Paper and Watermark in Fabriano. Most date from the paper artists of the middle ages and are thus contemporaneous with the people and events of this volume. As in my previous poetry books, I have hand-bound and hand-colored my pages.