A very, very curious book I bought immediately on book fair just by per-reading the quotes on the back cover mixing the Caminho de Santiago (Way of Saint James) with alchemy-related themes.
What the author offers is an unpretentious, but well built story/theory about the origins of the ancient pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, and also of those now forgotten to Armorica (France) and Cornwall (Britain), following the path of the Stars into the landing places of "Noah".
Mixing legend/myth, archeology and megalitism, linguistics, mysticism/alchemism and architecture themes, he tells the story of the James/Jacobs/Tiagos", an initiatic brotherhood of stone carvers, masons and builders, despised through the times and identifying themselves with the sign of the goose's paw (the now famous scallop shell?) who held the knowledge to build all the great gothic and romanesque churches and cathedrals in western medieval Europe.
It even mentions the symbols carved on said buildings stones, which have made me curious since I was a little boy visiting the Portuguese religious monuments!
Everyone who has done or wants to do the Camino de Santiago should read this book, if not just to see how many things along the Way can be seen/understood on a different perspective when you walk a way that has been trodden for thousands of years, by thousands of people.
(Portuguese. Editorial Minerva de Lisboa, abril de 1973. Too bad I got ripped off by the not-so-mint-quality/price).