The Book of John Mandeville

Description

The Book of John Mandeville has tended to be neglected by modern teachers and scholars, yet this intriguing and copious work has much to offer the student of medieval literature, history, and culture. [It] was a contemporary bestseller, providing readers with exotic information about locales from Constantinople to China and about the social and religious practices of peoples such as the Greeks, Muslims, and Brahmins. The Book first appeared in the middle of the fourteenth century and by the next century could be found in an extraordinary range of European languages: not only Latin, French, German, English, and Italian, but also Czech, Danish, and Irish. Its wide readership is also attested by the two hundred fifty to three hundred medieval manuscripts that still survive today. Chaucer borrowed from it, as did the Gawain-poet in the Middle English Cleanness, and its popularity continued long after the Middle Ages. Title page Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction The Book Of John Mandeville Preface Prologue 1. A Way to Jerusalem 2. Ageyn to the Way 3. A Wey by the See to Jerusalem 4. The Way to Babylon 5. A Wey to Jerusalem 6. Jerusalem 7. [Environs of Jerusalem] 8. A Way fro Galilé to Jerusalem thorgh Damas 9. The Shortest Way to Jerusalem 10. Another Way to Jerusalem 11. A Wey All by Lond to Jerusalem 12. Truthe of Sarasyns 13. Dyverseteis of Peple and of Contreis 14, The Land of Mancy 15. The Londe of the Gret Cane of Catay 16. Why He Is Y-cleped the Great Cane 17. Aray of the Court of the Gret Cane 18. The Lond of Pers 19. The Kyndom of Caldee 20. The Lond of Prester John 21. Aray of the Court of Prester John 22. Why He Is Y-cliped Prester John Explanatory Notes Textual Notes Appendix: Sources Bibliography Glossary Indexed Glossary of Proper Names Middle English Text Series