Measurement in various forms was a prominent feature of the Jerusalem pilgrimage since its very early stages. Pilgrims count distances and steps, measure monuments, mark time, and record all these activities in textual and visual forms. My paper attempts to understand this often ignored phenomenon by placing measurement during pilgrimage within a performative and liturgical framework. The broad cultural shift in the 14th and 15th centuries towards systematic and accurate measurement, often linked to the rise of a scientific outlook, may be reconsidered in light of this long tradition.
