Travels of Sir John Mandeville, The (Penguin Classics)

John Mandeville

By the standards of the 14th century, the writing style of the man who called himself Sir John Mandeville is so informal as to be nearly chummy: "He who wants to pass over the sea to Jerusalem, may go by many ways, both by sea and by land depending on the countries he comes from; many ways come to a single end. But do not think I shall tell of all the towns and cities and castles that men shall go by, for then I must make too long a tale of it." Historians remain skeptical as to whether the author really did journey to the Holy Land and Egypt, or hire himself out as a soldier to the Great Khan of China. Whatever the case, it is indisputable that he is one of the first modern travel writers, as we have come to know the genre, and that his book was considered authoritative in matters geographical throughout Europe--consulted by Leonardo da Vinci and Christopher Columbus alike.

1 anarchy and imagination
This is a fourteenth-century travel book telling us of the English "Sir" John Mandeville's real or imagined adventures in the East. The first part deals with the land of Egypt and the second with "the lands beyond" -. But did he actually ever leave England?? Did this Knighted author actually exist? Was he French? We'll never know, but this volume is a thorough compendium of medieval mythic lore, which he artfully blends in collage-form (very much in the fashion of the allegedly "post-modern" writing), which would be a great success throughout Europe for centuries to come. One of these pleased readers would be Christopher Columbus, who here fed his imagination on the passion for distant travels!

Together with this book I recommend the popular VOYAGE OF ST BRENDAN by Benedeiz, an earlier, twelfth-century text about the adventures of an Irish monk who never got tired of looking for fantastic islands on his tiny boat. The anarchy and imagination of the Middle-Ages always seems more fantastic when we read the original medieval authors directly.

This is a medieval best-seller for all.

2 The curious history of John Mandeville
Sir John Mandeville was an Early-Renaissance writer of travel tales similar in content and style to his famous near-contemporary, Marco Polo. But history has judged these two men quite differently: whereas Marco Polo has become a household word, synonymous with bold explorations, Mandeville has been largely forgotten. But it was not always so.

During his lifetime, and for a couple of centuries afterwards, Mandeville was by far the more famous of the two. A copy of Mandeville - but not Polo - was in the possession of Leonardo da Vinci. More telling, about 300 manuscripts (hand-written copies) of Mandeville survive, compared to only about 70 of Polo.

What accounts for Mandeville's reversals of fortune?

Mandeville (or someone calling himself that) wrote his book about 1356, or shortly thereafter. Its original tile was "The Voyages and Travels of Sir John Mandeville, Knight," but is now generally known as "Travels of Sir John Mandeville." Polo's book, originally titled, "Descriptions of the World," came out about 1300. Whereas Mandeville wrote his book himself, Polo used the services of a professional writer, Rusticello, who in turn based the book on Polo's notebooks. (Mandeville is the better written.)

Standards of what constitutes a historical/geographic work have greatly changed. Both books -- but especially Mandeville -- contain a fascinating pastiche of facts (often distorted), impressions, opinions, and utterly fantastic claims. Reading Mandeville today, one is left with a bewildering farrago of National Geographic and supermarket tabloids.

As the Age of Exploration progressed, reliable geographic, historic, and economic data came to be more highly valued than fantastic tales. Since Polo's book was found to be the more reliable its reputation increased. Mandeville, on the other hand, came to be seen as a "teller of tall tales," a kind of Baron Munchhausen.

Indeed, today many historians question whether the man "Mandeville" really existed. Most believe that the person who wrote "Mandeville" never actually traveled to the placed he describes, and obtained his material from other sources. He took the identity of "Sir John Mandeville" to bolster his credibility. (Recently there have been attempts to "rehabilitate" Mandeville.)

What is their relevance today? Except in a narrow historical context, I would say that Mandeville is definitely the more interesting. What Mandeville lacks in historic and geographic accuracy, he more than makes up by his insight into what continually fascinates mankind - both then and now. A considerable portion of Mandeville can be fairly equated to today's Elvis sightings, or to the woman from Ohio who has the spaceman's baby. We are too immersed in our contemporary world to clearly see what is behind such phenomena; but looking back at Mandeville's world our vision greatly improves. Consider:

Mandeville tells of a society in which women often have snakes in their ...uhm...private parts. In order to protect themselves their men hire the services of professional "testers." As absurd as this all sounds, could Mandeville actually be describing some venereal disease?

Another example: could the various human monstrosities described by Mandeville (people with dog's heads, etc.) have modern counterparts in television's Star Trek?

The Penguin book would be improved by additional maps and illustrations -- unfortunately this would increase the cost.