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The Book of John Mandeville: with Related Texts
A fictive traveler's guide to the East, both Near and Far, The Book of John Mandeville was a late--medieval best seller, more popular in its day than Marco Polo's Travels. In addition to a fresh, vibrant translation--the first from the Middle French original since the fifteenth century―this edition of The Book of John Mandeville offers a succinct, broad-ranging Introduction to the work that touches on the question of authorship, the sources on which the text drew, and the transformation and reception of the work down to the present day.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published November 30, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 16, 2018
My five-star rating is for the version with translation and commentary by Iain Macleod Higgins, whose expert editing and notes guided this reader safely through some pretty choppy interpretive waters.
October 24, 2024
A riveting compilation of semi-mythical travel memoirs, this work offers endless amusement as the author(s) interpret and contextualize myths, customs, and hearsay from foreign lands. Bearing in mind that it was written in the mid-14th century—over a hundred years before Columbus’s transatlantic voyage—and given its patchwork nature, it’s inevitable that some sections feel out of place or awkwardly inserted. That said, it’s a must-read for any amateur medievalist. I would like to share a few excerpts that, in my opinion, capture the sense of wonder and amazement the text’s medieval audience would have experienced.
In chapter 16, Albanians are turbo-whites who breed attack dogs: “Next is Albania, a very great kingdom, and it is called Albania because the people are much whiter than in the other places around there; and there are such large and such strong dogs in this country that they attack and kill lions.” (p. 90).
Chapter 17 discusses the differences in appearance between men and women in Chaldea (southern Iraq): “In the kingdom of Chaldea the men are very handsome, and they go about very nobly dressed with golden scarves, and their clothes too are very nobly adorned with gold embroidery and large pearls and precious stones. The women are very ugly and badly dressed, and they all walk barefoot and wearing a miserable, baggy garment, cut off at the knees, and the sleeves are long and baggy in the manner of a monk’s habit, and they have sleeves hanging right to their feet, and they have their hair long and black, hanging all around their shoulders; and the women are quite dark, ugly, and hideous, and they are certainly not beautiful, but they lack graciousness.” (p. 96).
In the same chapter, Mandeville tells of how certain Indians breed magical crystals: “They grow together male and female, and they feed on the dew from Heaven, and they conceive and beget and make theri little children beside them that multiply and grow every year. [If] they are kept with a little of the rock, and not separated from their root, and wet often with May dew, they grow visibly every year, and the small ones become quite big. [...] The diamond gives to its bearer boldness and high spirits, and keeps the body’s limbs whole, and gives victory over enemies in legal disputes and war, if the cause is just, and keeps the bearer in his right mind, and keeps him from quarrels and fights and from bad dreams and fantasies and [the] illusion of evil spirits. If any wicked person wants to bewitch or enchant the bearer, the spells and the enchantments will rebound on him who wanted to harm the bearer through the power of the stone, and likewise no wild animal will dare attack a person who carries the diamond on him. Also, the diamond must be given without greed in buying or selling, and then it is of much greater power, and makes one stronger and more steadfast against the enemies, and it heals lunatics and those whom the Devil follows and torments, and if one brings venom or poison into the presence of the diamond, it grows moist right away and begins to sweat. (p. 99-100).
Chapter 18 details how Indian men’s scrotums hang low due to the hot climate: “But it is so hot on this island that, because of the heat’s great force, men’s hangers, videlicet testiculi, come out of their bodies halfway down the leg, because of the body’s great dissipation. But the local people and those who know nature prescribe that they be bound very tightly and smeared with astringent and cooling ointment to keep them in the body, or else they [the men] could not live or endure.” (p. 101-102).
Chapter 22 explains how southern Chinese women are the most beautiful in the world but they’re actually Albanians again: “In this country there are more very beautiful women than in any other country beyond the sea, and therefore some call this land Albania because there are white people [there].” (p. 125).
And a few pages later in the same chapter, Mandeville reveals that Chinese people are beautiful, excellent craftsmen who only live for 8 years (sad!), battle birds, and have second class giants living among them: “These are people of small stature who are only three spans high [one “span” is about 9 inches], and they are beautiful and elegant according to their smallness, both men and women. They get married at half a year old, and they have children and live only six or seven years and whoever lives eight years is considered to be terribly old. These little people are the best workers in silk and cotton and all things that are made from them that could be in the world, and they are often at war with the birds of the country that catch them and eat them. These little people do not work land or vines, but there is a big people amongst them such as we are who cultivate and work the lands as is appropriate; and the little people mock these big people and scorn them just as we would large giants if they were amongst us. (p. 128).
Chapter 31 tells of professional cuckholders: “There is another island [...] where the custom is such that on the first night that they are married they have another man lie with their wives to take their virginity and they give them a good reward for this [...] for those of the country consider it such a great task and so dangerous to take a wife’s virginity that it seems to them that those who take wives’ virginity put themselves at risk of death. If the husband finds his wife a virgin on the next night, after the other has not taken her virginity because of drunkenness or for some other reason, he will lodge a complaint against the official for not having done his duty, as if the official wished to kill him. But after the first night that they lose their virginity, the wives are watched so closely that they are never so bold as to dare speak to anyone. But I asked about the reason why such a custom was kept, and they told me that a long time ago some men had died taking the virginity of their wives, who had snakes in their body; therefore they keep this custom and they always have someone else try out the passage before they endanger themselves. (p. 170).
There are giant Sri Lankan gold-farming ants in chapter 33: “On the island of Taprobane there are also large mountains of gold that the ants guard carefully, and they refine and separate the pure from the impure; and the ants are as big as dogs, such that the people dare not approach these mountains, for the ants would attack them, and they cannot have any of this gold unless it is through a great ruse. Therefore, when it is intensely hot, the ants hide in the ground from terce until none, and at this time the people take camels, dromedaries, mares, and other animals and they go to load them very stealthily and then they flee before the ants come out of the ground. At other times when it is not so hot and the ants do not hide at all, they do this in another way. They take mares that have small foals and place on the mares two empty containers like small coffers, and these are open on top and hang almost to the ground. Then they send these mares to graze around these mountains and they hold the foals back, and when the ants see these vessels they leap up and climb in. Their nature is such that they leave nothing empty around them, whether a hole in the ground or anything else, and these ants fill these vessels with this gold. When the people think that the mares are loaded with enough of it, they let the foals out and make them whinny, and right away the mares come fleeing back towards the foals, and they unload the mare, and thus they have plenty of gold, for these ants allow other animals amongst them, but they will not allow human beings.” (p. 178-179).
Lastly, chapter 34 gives a reasonably accurate description of Tibetan sky burials: “[W]hen someone’s father dies and he wishes to greatly honor his father, [...] the body is carried onto a mountain [and] the greatest priest cuts off the head and sets it on a large platter [...] Then the priests and the monks cut all the flesh of the body into pieces, and then they say their prayers, and the birds of the country, which have long known this custom, come flying above—such as vultures, eagles, and all other birds that eat flesh—and the priests throw pieces of the flesh to them, and they carry it not far away and eat it. [T]hese priests there at this point chant aloud in their language, “See how worthy a man he was that God’s angels seek him out and carry him to Paradise.” At this point it seems to the son that he is very much honored when the birds have eaten his father, and whoever has the greatest number of birds is the most honored. (p. 182).
In chapter 16, Albanians are turbo-whites who breed attack dogs: “Next is Albania, a very great kingdom, and it is called Albania because the people are much whiter than in the other places around there; and there are such large and such strong dogs in this country that they attack and kill lions.” (p. 90).
Chapter 17 discusses the differences in appearance between men and women in Chaldea (southern Iraq): “In the kingdom of Chaldea the men are very handsome, and they go about very nobly dressed with golden scarves, and their clothes too are very nobly adorned with gold embroidery and large pearls and precious stones. The women are very ugly and badly dressed, and they all walk barefoot and wearing a miserable, baggy garment, cut off at the knees, and the sleeves are long and baggy in the manner of a monk’s habit, and they have sleeves hanging right to their feet, and they have their hair long and black, hanging all around their shoulders; and the women are quite dark, ugly, and hideous, and they are certainly not beautiful, but they lack graciousness.” (p. 96).
In the same chapter, Mandeville tells of how certain Indians breed magical crystals: “They grow together male and female, and they feed on the dew from Heaven, and they conceive and beget and make theri little children beside them that multiply and grow every year. [If] they are kept with a little of the rock, and not separated from their root, and wet often with May dew, they grow visibly every year, and the small ones become quite big. [...] The diamond gives to its bearer boldness and high spirits, and keeps the body’s limbs whole, and gives victory over enemies in legal disputes and war, if the cause is just, and keeps the bearer in his right mind, and keeps him from quarrels and fights and from bad dreams and fantasies and [the] illusion of evil spirits. If any wicked person wants to bewitch or enchant the bearer, the spells and the enchantments will rebound on him who wanted to harm the bearer through the power of the stone, and likewise no wild animal will dare attack a person who carries the diamond on him. Also, the diamond must be given without greed in buying or selling, and then it is of much greater power, and makes one stronger and more steadfast against the enemies, and it heals lunatics and those whom the Devil follows and torments, and if one brings venom or poison into the presence of the diamond, it grows moist right away and begins to sweat. (p. 99-100).
Chapter 18 details how Indian men’s scrotums hang low due to the hot climate: “But it is so hot on this island that, because of the heat’s great force, men’s hangers, videlicet testiculi, come out of their bodies halfway down the leg, because of the body’s great dissipation. But the local people and those who know nature prescribe that they be bound very tightly and smeared with astringent and cooling ointment to keep them in the body, or else they [the men] could not live or endure.” (p. 101-102).
Chapter 22 explains how southern Chinese women are the most beautiful in the world but they’re actually Albanians again: “In this country there are more very beautiful women than in any other country beyond the sea, and therefore some call this land Albania because there are white people [there].” (p. 125).
And a few pages later in the same chapter, Mandeville reveals that Chinese people are beautiful, excellent craftsmen who only live for 8 years (sad!), battle birds, and have second class giants living among them: “These are people of small stature who are only three spans high [one “span” is about 9 inches], and they are beautiful and elegant according to their smallness, both men and women. They get married at half a year old, and they have children and live only six or seven years and whoever lives eight years is considered to be terribly old. These little people are the best workers in silk and cotton and all things that are made from them that could be in the world, and they are often at war with the birds of the country that catch them and eat them. These little people do not work land or vines, but there is a big people amongst them such as we are who cultivate and work the lands as is appropriate; and the little people mock these big people and scorn them just as we would large giants if they were amongst us. (p. 128).
Chapter 31 tells of professional cuckholders: “There is another island [...] where the custom is such that on the first night that they are married they have another man lie with their wives to take their virginity and they give them a good reward for this [...] for those of the country consider it such a great task and so dangerous to take a wife’s virginity that it seems to them that those who take wives’ virginity put themselves at risk of death. If the husband finds his wife a virgin on the next night, after the other has not taken her virginity because of drunkenness or for some other reason, he will lodge a complaint against the official for not having done his duty, as if the official wished to kill him. But after the first night that they lose their virginity, the wives are watched so closely that they are never so bold as to dare speak to anyone. But I asked about the reason why such a custom was kept, and they told me that a long time ago some men had died taking the virginity of their wives, who had snakes in their body; therefore they keep this custom and they always have someone else try out the passage before they endanger themselves. (p. 170).
There are giant Sri Lankan gold-farming ants in chapter 33: “On the island of Taprobane there are also large mountains of gold that the ants guard carefully, and they refine and separate the pure from the impure; and the ants are as big as dogs, such that the people dare not approach these mountains, for the ants would attack them, and they cannot have any of this gold unless it is through a great ruse. Therefore, when it is intensely hot, the ants hide in the ground from terce until none, and at this time the people take camels, dromedaries, mares, and other animals and they go to load them very stealthily and then they flee before the ants come out of the ground. At other times when it is not so hot and the ants do not hide at all, they do this in another way. They take mares that have small foals and place on the mares two empty containers like small coffers, and these are open on top and hang almost to the ground. Then they send these mares to graze around these mountains and they hold the foals back, and when the ants see these vessels they leap up and climb in. Their nature is such that they leave nothing empty around them, whether a hole in the ground or anything else, and these ants fill these vessels with this gold. When the people think that the mares are loaded with enough of it, they let the foals out and make them whinny, and right away the mares come fleeing back towards the foals, and they unload the mare, and thus they have plenty of gold, for these ants allow other animals amongst them, but they will not allow human beings.” (p. 178-179).
Lastly, chapter 34 gives a reasonably accurate description of Tibetan sky burials: “[W]hen someone’s father dies and he wishes to greatly honor his father, [...] the body is carried onto a mountain [and] the greatest priest cuts off the head and sets it on a large platter [...] Then the priests and the monks cut all the flesh of the body into pieces, and then they say their prayers, and the birds of the country, which have long known this custom, come flying above—such as vultures, eagles, and all other birds that eat flesh—and the priests throw pieces of the flesh to them, and they carry it not far away and eat it. [T]hese priests there at this point chant aloud in their language, “See how worthy a man he was that God’s angels seek him out and carry him to Paradise.” At this point it seems to the son that he is very much honored when the birds have eaten his father, and whoever has the greatest number of birds is the most honored. (p. 182).
January 12, 2017
As thoroughly strange and fantastic as you might expect a Medieval travel narrative to be (almost everyone's a cannibal? You don't say! There are big ants that guard a golden mountain? Oh boy!), what's really interesting about this, to me at least, is the implied attitude of the author to the people unlike himself. Sure there are some nasty parts (sorry, Jewish people), but what is most striking is the amount of respect the author has for Muslims, Mongols, and (as far as I can tell) Chinese people.
Given a book written in the late fourteenth century, would you ever have expected, for instance, this:
Alas, what a great scandal it is to our law and to our faith when people who have neither law nor faith rebuke us and reprimand our sins ... are through our evils and through us distanced and estranged from the holy and true belief. ... But Saracens are good, faithful, for they entirely keep the command of their prophet Machomet [sic], to whom they say Saint Gabriel the angel often spoke, and explained to him the divine will.
There's also an enjoyable mixture of credulity and skepticism: he takes certain things completely on faith ("There is a people there that have only one foot ... the foot is so large that it shades the whole body from the sun when they are lying down") and other things he rejects outright ("But those who tell such tales talk nonsense, for no one can climb that mountain because of the abundance of snow"). Interesting stuff! Also, the earth IS the center of the universe, but IS NOT flat, as can be demonstrated by stars. Thanks, John Mandeville!
Given a book written in the late fourteenth century, would you ever have expected, for instance, this:
Alas, what a great scandal it is to our law and to our faith when people who have neither law nor faith rebuke us and reprimand our sins ... are through our evils and through us distanced and estranged from the holy and true belief. ... But Saracens are good, faithful, for they entirely keep the command of their prophet Machomet [sic], to whom they say Saint Gabriel the angel often spoke, and explained to him the divine will.
There's also an enjoyable mixture of credulity and skepticism: he takes certain things completely on faith ("There is a people there that have only one foot ... the foot is so large that it shades the whole body from the sun when they are lying down") and other things he rejects outright ("But those who tell such tales talk nonsense, for no one can climb that mountain because of the abundance of snow"). Interesting stuff! Also, the earth IS the center of the universe, but IS NOT flat, as can be demonstrated by stars. Thanks, John Mandeville!
November 30, 2023
john mandeville, whoever the writer really was, was doing some hallucinogenic drug. it’s the only explanation for this book.
certainly a wild ride, from dragons, to ants as big as dogs, to human giants who eat normal sized people, to prester john, to magnetic rocks that capsized ships… the list goes on.
he was also just a tad anti-semitic and racist.
nevertheless, if one can look past some of the junk, this is an enjoyable read if just for the imaginative vision.
certainly a wild ride, from dragons, to ants as big as dogs, to human giants who eat normal sized people, to prester john, to magnetic rocks that capsized ships… the list goes on.
he was also just a tad anti-semitic and racist.
nevertheless, if one can look past some of the junk, this is an enjoyable read if just for the imaginative vision.
November 12, 2021
Very complicated, heterogeneic work of ethnography that ultimately, though, fulfils a form of crusade fantasy #2.
December 5, 2022
I wanna know how this guy got away with plagiarizing every single detail in this book
October 4, 2024
the late great…hannibal lecter
March 10, 2026
Read for a class. Interesting sections but mostly intensely boring.
November 18, 2014
This is a must read for anyone studying medieval literature. If you are not studying medieval literature, then you might want to pass on this one.
An entertaining travel guidebook, even more entertaining once the reader discovers that Mandeville never actually made these travels he claims to have made.
An entertaining travel guidebook, even more entertaining once the reader discovers that Mandeville never actually made these travels he claims to have made.
May 5, 2013
First half - the dragon lady story was intriguing to analyze, but the text quickly became a bit less interesting. I suffered through the first half.
Second half - significantly better, with more "creatures" and travels to analyze.
All in all, this text was not would I thought it would be.
Second half - significantly better, with more "creatures" and travels to analyze.
All in all, this text was not would I thought it would be.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews