The Book of John Mandeville
Douban
With Related Texts
Iain Macleod Higgins (Edited, with an Introduction) Iain Macleod Higgins
Sinossi
Honorable Mention Recipient, 2011 MLA Scaglione Prize for an Outstanding Translation of a Literary Work
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.
Also included are notes setting the work in its historical and cultural context and selections from related texts, including significant textual variants from William of Boldensele’s Book of Certain Regions beyond the Mediterranean and Odoric of Pordenone’s Relatio.
contenuti
Acknowledgments; Introduction; Abbreviations
The Book of John Mandeville
Appendix A: Variants and Versions
1. The Insular and Continental French Versions
2. The Interpolated Continental (Liège) Version
3. Three English Versions
4. Two German Versions
5. The Vulgate Latin Version
Appendix B: The Sources of The Book of John Mandeville
1. William of Boldensele, Book of Certain Regions beyond the Mediterranean (Excerpt)
2. (Pseudo-)William of Tripoli, Treatise on the State of the Saracens (Excerpt)
3. Odoric of Pordenone, Account (Excerpt)
4. How to Mount a Crusade Overseas (Excerpt)
5. Hayton of Armenia, Flower of the Histories of the Land of the East (Excerpt)
Appendix C: Contexts and Commentary
1. A Note on Geography and Cosmology
2. A Note on the Astrolabe
3. A Note on the Alphabets
4. A Note on the Account of the Sultans in Chapter 6
5. A Note on the Mongol Emperors and Their Early Empire
Works Cited and Select Bibliography
Index of Scriptural and Related Citations in Latin
Select Index of Proper Names
