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 (around the year 1140) is considered as highly important for the
history of the Basque language because it contains some of the earliest Basque words and phrases.