I KNOW of nothing more likely to be provocative of a literary war
than the question of Sir John Mandeville's personal entity. Were I to
express an opinion either way--that he was a real being, or that he
never existed--fierce would be the criticism on my views, and much
good ink be spilt, which might well be devoted to a better purpose,
so that I prefer letting the reader form his own opinion thereon,--a
course which will save everybody any trouble or vexation of spirit.
We labour under this difficulty--all that is known about him is what
he tells us himself, and no one who reads the book can altogether
trust his absolute verity. If his book is a mere compilation from
other sources, so then is that of Odorico (who died January, 1331),
which I place in an Appendix, and which agrees with Mandeville in
so many particulars, that one might reasonably suppose him to be the
"fellawe," or companion, whom he frequently mentions, and connect him
with that Minorite friar from Lombardy (for Odorico was born at Udine
or Friuli) who shrove them before their entrance into "y^e Valey of
Divels."[1] According to his own account, he was a knight, that he was
born at St. Albans, and that he left England on his wonderful voyage
on 29th September, 1322. He informs us that he travelled through Asia
Minor, Armenia, Tartary, Persia, Syria, Arabia, Upper and Lower Egypt,
Libya, Chaldæa, a large portion of Ethiopia, Amazonia, Lower India,
and the greater part of Upper India, together with the neighbouring
islands. If his narrative can be trusted, he lived in most friendly
relations with the ruler of Egypt, whom he served in his war against
the Bedouins, and was on such familiar terms that they would privately
argue on religious topics, and he was even offered a richly dowered
princess as a wife, if he would but change his creed, and become a
Mahometan. If he can be believed, he wandered all over the then known
world, and gratified his military instincts by helping the Emperor
of China in his war against the sovereign of Manzi. He tells us that
after thirty-four years of wandering and exile he returned to England,
taking Rome in his way home, in order to get the Pope's Imprimatur to
his book, for which he naïvely gives as reason: "and, for as much as
many men beleve not that they see with theyr eyen, or y^t they may
conceiue & know in their mynde, therefore I made my way to Rome in
my coming homewarde, to shew my boke to the holy father the pope, and
tell him of the mervayles y^t I had sene in diverse countreys; so that
he with his wise counsel wold examine it, with diverse folke y^t are
at Rome, for there dwell men of all nations of the world, and a lytle
time after whan he & his co[~u]sel had examined it all through, he
sayde to me for a certayne that it was true, for he sayd he had a
boke of latin contayning all that, and much more, of y^e which _Mappa
Mundi_ is made, the which boke I saw, & therefore the pope hath
ratyfied & confirmed my boke in all poyntes." If any portion of this
is true, it is probable that the "boke of latin" may have been Pliny,
Solinus, or some other equally veracious writer.
As to the "Mappa Mundi" constructed from such sources, that at
Hereford may be taken as a type of ideal geography of the time. This
was almost contemporary with Mandeville, and is ascribed to the very
early part of the fourteenth century. Indeed, it can be proved to
be of this date, for, among other inscriptions on the map, is the
following:-
"Tuz Ki cest estoire ont.
Ou oyront ou lirront ou veront.
Prieut a ihesu su deyte.
De Richard de Haldingdam e de Lafford eyt pite.
Ki lat fet e compasse.
Ki ioie eu cel li seit donc."