"All who have, or shall have, or shall read, or shall see this
history--pray to Jesu in deity (or as God) that he may have
pity on Richard of Haldingham and of Lafford, who has made and
contrived it, that joy in heaven may be given unto him."
Richard of Haldingham, or Holdingham, whose real name was Richard
de la Battayle, or de Bello,[2] held the prebend of Lafford (now
Sleaford), in Lincoln Cathedral up to the year 1283, and afterwards
held the prebend of Norton, in Hereford Cathedral. Hardy, in his
edition of Le Neve's _Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ_, says he was
appointed to this stall in 1305. He was afterwards preferred to the
Archidiaconate of Berkshire. Perhaps the best description of this
map is in a paper read before the Geographical Society of Paris,
30th November, 1861, by M. D'Avezac, President of the Society, a
translation of which may be found in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of
May, 1863. He considers it to have been executed early in the year
1314, because Lyons was not annexed to France till the 30th of April,
1313, and gives other reasons, equally strong, in support of his
argument.
Thus, then, we have a contemporary map as a guide, and on
this Hereford map are portrayed all the monsters described by
Mandeville--the one-eyed men, those with their heads in their breasts,
even the big-footed one-legged man--all those things which are
regarded as fable in Mandeville--are here drawn, and evidently must
have been currently believed in. So that when Mandeville, or some
subsequent editor, challenged the _Mappa Mundi_ as confirmatory
evidence, he clearly knew what he was about.
A strong presumption of his personal being is drawn from the fact that
Liège is said to be the place of his burial, _see Appendix Harl._,
3589. 2, "qui obiit Leodii A.D. 1382." That he was believed to have
lived at Liège is also shown in _Appendix Grenville_, 6728/3, where he
is said to have written his book in the year 1355; and if Weever[3]
is to believed, he died there, but at an earlier date, namely, 1371.
Speaking of St. Albans, he says: "This Towne vaunts her selfe very
much of the birth and buriall of _Sir Iohn Mandeuill_ Knight, the
famous Trauailer, who writ in Latine, French, and in the English
tongue, his Itinerary of three and thirty yeares. And that you may
beleeue the report of the Inhabitants to bee true, they haue lately
pensild a rare piece of Poetry, or an Epitaph for him, vpon a piller;
neere to which, they suppose his body to haue beene buried, which I
think not much amisse to set downe; for although it will not bee worth
the reading, yet do but set it to some lofty tune, as to the _Hunting
of Antichrist_, or the leke, I know it will be well worth the singing:
marke how it runs.
"'All yee that passe, on this pillar cast eye,
This Epitaph read if you can;
'Twill tell you a Tombe onc't stood in this roome,
Of a braue spirited man.
_Iohn Mandeuill_ by name, a knight of great fame,
Borne in this honoured Towne.
Before him was none that euer was knowne,
For trauaile of so high renowne.
As the Knights in the Temple, crosse-legged in marble,
In armour, with sword and with sheeld,
So was this Knight grac't, which time hath defac't,
That nothing but ruines doth yeeld.
His Trauailes being donne, he shines like the Sun,
In heauenly Canaan.
To which blessed place, O Lord of his grace
Bring vs all man after man.'
"That he was borne heere in this Towne I cannot much deny; but I am
sure that within these few yeares, I saw his Tombe in the Citie of
Leege, within the Church of the religious house of the _Guilliammits_,
with this Inscription vpon it, and the verses following hanging by on
a table.
"_Hic iacet vir nobilis D. Ioannes de Mandevile, Al;[4] D. ad Barbam
miles; Dominus de Campdi: natus de Anglia, Medicine professor,
deuotissimus orator: et bonorum largissimus pauperibus erogator qui
toto quasi orbe lustrato. Leodij diem vite sue clausit extremum. Ann.
Dom. M.C.C.C.lxxi. Mens. Nouemb. die xvi._
_ALIUD._
"'_Hoc iacet in tumulo, cui totus patria vino
Orbis erat; totum quem peragrasse ferunt.
Anglus Equesque fuit, nunc ille Britannus Vlysses
Dicatur, Graio clarus Vlysse magis._
_Moribus, ingenio, candore, & sanguine clarus
Et vere cultor Relligionis erat.
Nomen si queras, est Mandevil, Indus, Arabsque
Sat notum dicet finibus esse suis._'
"The Churchmen will shew you here his kniues, the furniture of his
horse, and his spurres, which he vsed in his trauells."
Thus speaks Weever, and nobody doubts but that there was a tomb of
a Jehan de Maundeville in the Abbey of the Guilelmites,[5] which is
mentioned by Bollandus in his _Acta Sanctorum_ (Februarius, Tom. 2,
p. 481, edit. 1658) as "Domus de Motta extra Leodium, inchoata, anno
CI[C]CCLXXXI." The abbey, or hospital, is now destroyed; but, as
side proofs, let me give two extracts from different works of the
eighteenth century. One, "Abrégé curieux et nouveau de l'histoire de
Liege," &c. (no date), 24mo., p. 117. "L'Hôpital & la Chapelle de S.
Guilleaume aux Faux-bourgs de S. Walburge furent fondez l'an 1330,"
and in "Abrégé Chronologique de l'histoire de Liege, jusqu'a l'année
1784, &c." Liege, 1784, 12mo., p. 66. It says, "L'hôpital & la
chapelle de Saint Guillaume au fauxbourg de Sainte Walburge furent
fondés l'an 1330."
As I said before, regarding Mandeville it must be a question of faith.
If Weever is to be relied on, he was a physician, and from the fact
of his wearing a beard, probably acquired in his eastern travels, he
received the sobriquet of "ad Barbam." This title, however, is claimed
for a certain "Jehan de Bourgoigne dit à la Barbe," but the bare fact
of anyone wearing a beard in France, in the clean-shaven fourteenth
century, was sufficient to make him remarkable.
If, again, Weever and others are to be relied on, he died in 1371, and
it is a curious fact that the earliest French, or Romance, manuscript
known in this country is one of that date, and, moreover, it is
circumstantially dated, as will be shown hereafter. This MS. is in the
Earl of Ashburnham's collection (catalogued Barrois 24), which every
lover of literature will regret was not secured for the nation in its
entirety. Its text is most beautiful, and the few illuminations
are fine examples of fourteenth century French art. But what I
want particularly to point out, is the curious coincidence of
dates--absolutely contemporaneous. Whether there were any MSS.
published before then I cannot tell, but here is a book published the
year of his death, when inquiry would have proved easily whether such
a man had ever lived, but the whole style of the MS. shows that he was
well known as a traveller, and it is evidently copied from an earlier
edition, as at the end it says, "Ce livre cy fist escrire honorables
homes sages et discret maistre Gervaise crestien, maistre en medicine,
et premier phisicien de tres puissant noble et excellent prince
Charles, par la Grace de Dieu, roy de France, Escript par Raoulet
dorliens lan de grace mil ccclxxj le xviij jour de Septembre."
Here we have an authentic date, which there could be no earthly reason
to falsify, and this MS. was written--unless Weever and others are
liars--during the man's lifetime. For, according to their authority,
he did not die until _November_ of that year, and we must not fail to
remember that Liege was not a very far cry from Paris, and that his
fame must have been great, or his book would never have been written
as a present for the king, as it probably was.
This manuscript, being the earliest known, is also useful in another
way. By some singular chance, all the English versions make out
that Mandeville wrote his book first in Latin, then in French, and
afterwards in English. But this manuscript settles the point, as it
says, "Et sachies [~q] je eusse cest livret mis en latin pour
plus briefment deviser. Mais pour ce que pluseurs entendent mieulx
ro[~m]ant que latin je lay mis en ro[~m]ant par quoy [~q] chacun
lentende." Which I translate: "And know that I should (or might) have
written this book in Latin, for the sake of brevity. But, because more
people know the Romance (or French) tongue, than Latin, I have written
it in Romance, so that anyone may understand it." And this translation
is endorsed by E. M. Thompson, Esq., the head of the MS. department
in the British Museum. It all depends on the words "je eusse." They
do not mean _I had_; and, even in modern French, might be used for _I
should have_, although of course _j'aurais_ would be better.
For many years he has been called the "father of English Prose," but
this title, after the above, is doubtful, even if his existence is
granted, and belongs of right to Wyclif.
Another book, and a very rare and curious one it is, is attributed to
Mandeville. There is a copy of this book in the British Museum (C. 27,
f. 2), which, although in Gothic letter, gives no clue as to its date,
or place of birth, nor do any of the bibliographical authorities which
I have consulted (and they are all that can be found in the British
Museum) throw any light upon it. The museum authorities catalogue it
as _Lyons? 1530?_ Its title is "LE LAPIDAIRE _en francoys compose
par messire Jehan de mandeuille chevalier_." Its contents are of
little worth, except that they contain a store of legendary lore
relating to precious stones, such as are met with in most medieval
treatises on jewels and it winds up with a prayer. The authorship of
this book, too, must be a matter of faith, since it has nothing to
guarantee it but its title-page.
It is somewhat singular too, that the Latin letter supposed to be
written by Mandeville to King Edward the Third, and which is _apropos_
of nothing, only exists in the French edition.
In the appended Travels of Oderico, the Minorite Friar, I have
italicized many of the passages which are identical with Mandeville's
description in order that the reader may have easier reference.
[Footnote 1: "And there were in our company two friers minours
of Lombardy, & sayd, if any of us wold go in, they wold also,
as they had sayd so, and upon trust of them we sayd that we
wold go, & we dyd sing a masse, and were shriven & houseled,
and we went in xiiii men, and wh[=e] we came out we were but
x."]
[Footnote 2: Havergal's _Fasti Herefordenses_, p. 161.]
[Footnote 3: "Ancient Funerall Monuments, &c. Composed by
the Travels and Studie of John Weever." Lond. 1631. It is
exceedingly singular that a book published at Antwerp in 1584,
"The Itinerarium per nonnullas Galliæ Belgicæ partes Abrahami
Ortelii et Joannis Viviani," confirms Weever, in such almost
identical words, that it is not worth while to append a
translation. Ortelius, or Ortell, writes (p. 16):--"_Est
in hac quoq. regione Gulielmitar[~u] C[oe]nobium in quo
epitaphi[~u] hoc Joannis à Mandeuille excepimus_: HIC IACET
VIR NOBILIS D[~NS] JO[~E]S DE MANDEVILLE AL' D[~CV]S AD
BARBAM, MILES D[~NS] DE C[~A]PDI, NATUS DE ANGLIA, MEDICI[~E]
[~P][~F]ESSOR DEVOTISSIMVS ORATOR ET BONORUM LARGISSIMVS
PAUPERIBUS EROGATA QUI TOTO QUASI ORBE LUSTRATO LEODII DIEM
VITE SUE CLAVSIT EXTREMUM [~AN]O D[~NI] M^O CCC^O LXXI MENSIS
NOV[~E]BRE' DIE XVII.
"_Hæc in lapide, in quo c[oe]lata viri armati imago, leonem
calcantis, barba bifurcata, ad caput manus benedicens, &
vernacula hæc verba_: VOS KI PASEIS SOR MI POVR LAMOVR DEIX
PROIES POR ME. _Clypeus erat vacuus, in quo olim laminam
fuisse dicebant æream, & eius in ea itidem c[oe]lata
insignia, leonem videlicet argenteum, cui ad pectus lunula
rubea, in campo c[oe]ruleo, quem limbus ambiret denticulatus
ex oro. Eius nobis ostendeb[~a]t & cultros, ephippioque, &
calcaria, quibus usum fuisse affereb[~a]t in perigrando toto
fere terrarum orbe, vt clarius eius testatur Itinerarium, quod
typis etiam excusum passim habetur._"]
[Footnote 4: "Otherwise called the Bearded Knight."]
[Footnote 5: An order founded by Sir William of Maleval--a
hermit--who died 10th Feb., 1157. The order was somewhat
austere, as the members went barefoot, and their fasts were
almost continual. They have nearly all been absorbed into the
Augustines.]
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