Transcribed from the 1900 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org
The Travels
of
Sir John Mandeville
The version of the Cotton Manuscript
in modern spelling
* * * * *
_With three narratives_, _in illustration of it_,
_from Hakluyt’s_ “_Navigations_, _Voyages & Discoveries_”
* * * * *
London
Macmillan and Co. Limited
New York: The Macmillan Company
1900
* * * * *
GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE & CO.
* * * * *
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
THE Travels of Sir John Mandeville were edited anonymously in 1725, in
the version for which a ‘Cotton’ manuscript in the British Museum is our
only extant authority. From 1499, when they were first printed by Wynkyn
de Worde, the _Travels _had enjoyed great popularity in England, as in
the rest of Europe; but the printed editions before 1725 had all followed
an inferior translation (with an unperceived gap in the middle of it),
which had already gained the upper hand before printing was invented.
Another manuscript in the British Museum, belonging to the ‘Egerton’
collection, preserves yet a third version, and this was printed for the
first time by Mr. G. F. Warner, for the Roxburghe Club, in 1889, together
with the original French text, and an introduction, and notes, which it
would be difficult to over-praise. In editing the Egerton version, Mr.
Warner made constant reference to the Cotton manuscript, which he quoted
in many of his critical notes. But with this exception, no one appears
to have looked at the manuscript since it was first printed, and
subsequent writers have been content to take the correctness of the 1725
text for granted, priding themselves, apparently, on the care with which
they reproduced all the superfluous eighteenth century capitals with
which every line is dotted. Unluckily, the introduction of needless
capitals was the least of the original editor’s crimes, for he omits
words and phrases, and sometimes (a common trick with careless copyists)
a whole sentence or clause which happens to end with the same word as its
predecessor. He was also a deliberate as well as a careless criminal,
for the paragraph about the Arabic alphabet at the end of Chapter XV.
being difficult to reproduce, he omitted it altogether, and not only
this, but the last sentence of Chapter XVI. as well, because it contained
a reference to it.
That it has been left to the editor (who has hitherto rather avoided that
name) of a series of popular reprints to restore whole phrases and
sentences to the text of a famous book is not very creditable to English
scholarship, and amounts, indeed, to a personal grievance; for to produce
an easily readable text of an old book without a good critical edition to
work on must always be difficult, while in the case of a work with the
peculiar reputation of ‘Mandeville’ the difficulty is greatly increased.
Had a critical edition existed, it would have been permissible for a
popular text to botch the few sentences in which the tail does not agree
with the beginning, and to correct obvious mistranslation without special
note. But ‘Mandeville’ has an old reputation as the ‘Father of English
Prose,’ and when no trustworthy text is available, even a popular editor
must be careful lest he bear false witness. The Cotton version is,
therefore, here reproduced, ‘warts and all,’ save in less than a dozen
instances, where a dagger indicates that, to avoid printing nonsense, an
obvious flaw has been corrected either from the ‘Egerton’ manuscript or
the French text. When a word still survives, the modern form is adopted:
thus ‘Armenia’ and ‘soldiers’ are here printed instead of ‘Ermony’ and
‘soudiours.’ But a new word is never substituted for an old one, and the
reader who is unfamiliar with obsolete words, such as ‘Almayne’ (Germany)
or ‘dere’ (harm),—there are surprisingly few for a book written five
centuries ago,—must consult the unpretentious glossary. Of previous
editions, that of 1725 and the reprints of it, including those of
Halliwell-Phillipps, profess, though they do not do so, to reproduce the
manuscript exactly. Thomas Wright’s edition is really a translation, and
that issued in 1895 by Mr. Arthur Layard often comes near to being one,
though the artist-editor has shown far more feeling for the old text than
his too whimsical illustrations might lead one to expect. It is hoped
that the plan here adopted preserves as much as possible of the
fourteenth century flavour, with the minimum of disturbance to the modern
reader’s enjoyment.
The plan of this series forbids the introduction of critical
disquisitions, and I am thus absolved from attempting any theory as to
how the tangled web of the authorship of the book should be unravelled.
The simple faith of our childhood in a Sir John Mandeville, really born
at St. Albans, who travelled, and told in an English book what he saw and
heard, is shattered to pieces. We now know that our Mandeville is a
compilation, as clever and artistic as Malory’s ‘Morte d’Arthur,’ from
the works of earlier writers, with few, if any, touches added from
personal experience; that it was written in French, and rendered into
Latin before it attracted the notice of a series of English translators
(whose own accounts of the work they were translating are not to be
trusted), and that the name Sir John Mandeville was a _nom de guerre
_borrowed from a real knight of this name who lived in the reign of
Edward II. Beyond this it is difficult to unravel the knot, despite the
ends which lie temptingly loose. A Liège chronicler, Jean d’Outremeuse,
tells a story of a certain Jean de Bourgogne revealing on his deathbed
that his real name was Sir John Mandeville; and in accordance with this
story there is authentic record of a funeral inscription to a Sir John
Mandeville in a church at Liège. Jean de Bourgogne had written other
books and had been in England, which he had left in 1322 (the year in
which “Mandeville” began his travels), being then implicated in killing a
nobleman, just, as the real Sir John Mandeville had been implicated ten
years before in the death of the Earl of Cornwall. We think for a moment
that we have an explanation of the whole mystery in imagining that Jean
de Bourgogne (he was also called Jean à_ _la Barbe, Joannes Barbatus) had
chosen to father his compilation on Mandeville, and eventually merged his
own identity in that of his pseudonym. But Jean d’Outremeuse, the
recipient of his deathbed confidence, is a tricky witness, who may have
had a hand in the authorship himself, and there is no clear story as yet
forthcoming. But the book remains, and is none the less delightful for
the mystery which attaches to it, and little less important in the
history of English literature as a translation than as an original work.
For though a translation it stands as the first, or almost the first,
attempt to bring secular subjects within the domain of English prose, and
that is enough to make it mark an epoch.
Mandeville is here reprinted rather as a source of literary pleasure than
as a medieval contribution to geography, and it is therefore no part of
our duty to follow Mr. Warner in tracking out the authorities to whom the
compiler had recourse in successive chapters. But as there was some
space in this volume to spare, and a very pleasant method of filling it
suggested itself, a threefold supplement is here printed, {0} which may
be of some use even to serious students, and is certainly very good
literature. When Richard Hakluyt, at the end of the sixteenth century,
was compiling his admirable work, ‘The Principall Navigations, Voiages,
and Discoveries of the English Nation, made by sea or over land, within
the compasse of these 1500_ _yeeres,’ he boldly overstepped the limits
set forth on his title-page, and printed in the original Latin, with
translations into good Elizabethan English, the narratives of three of
the earlier travellers, all of them foreigners, from whom the compiler of
Mandeville had drawn most freely. “And because,” he tells us, “these
north-eastern regions beyond Volga, by reason of the huge deserts, the
cold climate, and the barbarous incivilitie of the people there
inhabiting, were never yet thoroughly travelled by any of our Nation, nor
sufficiently known unto us; I have here annexed unto the said
Englishman’s {ix} traveils the rare and memorable journals of two friers
who were some of the first Christians that travailed farthest that way,
and brought home most particular intelligence of all things which they
had seen.” These two friars were John de Plano Carpini, sent on an
embassy to the great Chan by Pope Innocent IV. in 1246, and William de
Rubruquis, who travelled in the interests of Louis IX. of France in 1253.
In the same way in his Second Part, Hakluyt adds ‘The Voyage of Frier
Beatus Odoricus to Asia Minor, Armenia, Chaldaea, Persia, India, China,
and other remote parts,’ Odoric being a Franciscan of Pordenone in North
Italy, who dictated an account of his travels in 1330. Anyone who
compares these three narratives (more particularly Odoric’s) with
Mandeville’s Travels will see how the compiler used his materials, and
they have also very considerable interest of their own.
As this volume of the Library of English Classics has brought with it an
unusual editorial responsibility, I may be permitted an editor’s
privilege in making two acknowledgments. The first, to my friend Mr. G.
F. Warner, my readers must share with me, for without the help of his
splendid edition of the ‘Egerton’ version and the French text, the
popular ‘Mandeville’ could not have been attempted. My second
acknowledgment is of a more personal nature. Roxburghe Club books are
never easy to obtain, and the few copies of the Mandeville allowed to be
sold were priced at £20 each. In noticing Mr. Warner’s edition in the
‘Academy’ (from a borrowed copy), I remarked rather ruefully that the
gratitude which students of moderate means could feel towards the Club
for printing so valuable a work was somewhat tempered by this little
matter of the price. I was then helping Mr. Charles Elton with the
catalogue of his library, and on reading my review, he wrote me a pretty
letter to say that by the rules of the Club he was the possessor of a
second copy, and that he thought I was the best person to give it to.
Students who have to think a good many times before they spend £20 on a
book do not often receive such a present from wealthy book-lovers; and at
the risk of obtruding more of my own concerns than my rough-and-ready
editing entitles me to do, I cannot send out this ‘Mandeville,’ within a
few weeks of Mr. Elton’s too early death, without telling this little
story of his kindness.
A. W. POLLARD.
CONTENTS
THE TRAVELS OF SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE:
CHAP. PAGE
THE PROLOGUE, 1
I. To teach you the Way out of England to 6
Constantinople,
II. Of the Cross and the Crown of our Lord Jesu 8
Christ,
III. Of the City of Constantinople, and of the 11
Faith of the Greeks,
IV. Of the Way from Constantinople to Jerusalem. 16
Of Saint John the Evangelist. And of the
Ypocras Daughter, transformed from a Woman to
a Dragon,
V. [Of diversities in Cyprus; of the Road from 19
Cyprus to Jerusalem, and of the Marvel of a
Fosse full of Sand],
VI. Of many Names of Sultans, and of the Tower of 23
Babylon,
VII. Of the Country of Egypt; of the Bird Phoenix 30
of Arabia; of the City of Cairo; of the
Cunning to know Balm and to prove it; and of
the Garners of Joseph,
VIII. Of the Isle of Sicily; of the way from Babylon 36
to the Mount Sinai; of the Church of Saint
Katherine and of all the marvels there,
IX. Of the Desert between the Church of Saint 43
Catherine and Jerusalem. Of the Dry Tree; and
how Roses came first into the World,
X. Of the Pilgrimages in Jerusalem, and of the 49
Holy Places thereabout,
XI. Of the Temple of our Lord. Of the Cruelty of 54
King Herod. Of the Mount Sion. Of Probatica
Piscina; and of Natatorium Siloe,
XII. Of the Dead Sea; and of the Flome Jordan. Of 67
the Head of Saint John the Baptist; and of the
Usages of the Samaritans,
XIII. Of the Province of Galilee, and where 73
Antichrist shall be born. Of Nazareth. Of
the age of our Lady. Of the Day of Doom. And
of the customs of Jacobites, Syrians; and of
the usages of Georgians,
XIV. Of the City of Damascus. Of three ways to 81
Jerusalem; one, by land and by sea; another,
more by land than by sea; and the third way to
Jerusalem, all by land,
XV. Of the Customs of Saracens, and of their Law. 88
And how the Soldan reasoned me, Author of this
Book; and of the beginning of Mohammet,
XVI. Of the lands of Albania and of Libia. Of the 96
wishings for watching of the Sparrow-hawk; and
of Noah’s ship,
XVII. Of the Land of Job; and of his age. Of the 102
array of men of Chaldea. Of the land where
women dwell without company of men. Of the
knowledge and virtues of the very diamond,
XVIII. Of the customs of Isles about Ind. Of the 108
difference betwixt Idols and Simulacres. Of
three manner growing of Pepper upon one tree.
Of the Well that changeth his odour every hour
of the day; and that is marvel,
XIX. Of the Dooms made by St. Thomas’s hand. Of 115
devotion and sacrifice made to Idols there, in
the city of Calamye; and of the Procession in
going about the city,
XX. Of the evil customs used in the Isle of 119
Lamary. And how the earth and the sea be of
round form and shape, by proof of the star
that is clept Antarctic, that is fixed in the
south,
XXI. Of the Palace of the King of the Isle of Java. 125
Of the Trees that bear meal, honey, wine, and
venom; and of other marvels and customs used
in the Isles marching thereabout,
XXII. How men know by the Idol, if the sick shall 132
die or not. Of Folk of diverse shape and
marvellously disfigured. And of the Monks
that gave their relief to baboons, apes, and
marmosets, and to other beasts,
XXIII. Of the great Chan of Cathay. Of the royalty 139
of his palace, and how he sits at meat; and of
the great number of officers that serve him,
XXIV. Wherefore he is clept the great Chan. Of the 145
Style of his Letters: and of the
Superscription about his great Seal and his
Privy Seal,
XXV. Of the Governance of the great Chan’s Court, 151
and when he maketh solemn feasts. Of his
Philosophers. And of his array, when he
rideth by the country,
XXVI. Of the Law and the Customs of the Tartarians 162
dwelling in Cathay. And how that men do when
the Emperor shall die, and how he shall be
chosen,
XXVII. Of the Realm of Tharse and the Lands and 167
Kingdoms towards the Septentrional Parts, in
coming down from the Land of Cathay,
XXVIII. Of the Emperor of Persia, and of the Land of 169
Darkness; and of other kingdoms that belong to
the great Chan of Cathay, and other lands of
his, unto the sea of Greece,
XXIX. Of the Countries and Isles that be beyond the 174
Land of Cathay; and of the fruits there; and
of twenty-two kings enclosed within the
mountains,
XXX. Of the Royal Estate of Prester John. And of a 178
rich man that made a marvellous castle and
cleped it Paradise; and of his subtlety,
XXXI. Of the Devil’s Head in the Valley Perilous. 185
And of the Customs of Folk in diverse Isles
that be about in the Lordship of Prester John,
XXXII. Of the goodness of the folk of the Isle of 192
Bragman. Of King Alexander. And wherefore
the Emperor of Ind is clept Prester John,
XXXIII. Of the Hills of Gold that Pismires keep. And 198
of the four Floods that come from Paradise
Terrestrial,
XXXIV. Of the Customs of Kings and other that dwell 202
in the Isles coasting to Prester John’s Land.
And of the Worship that the Son doth to the
Father when he is dead,
THE PROLOGUE
FOR as much as the land beyond the sea, that is to say the Holy Land,
that men call the Land of Promission or of Behest, passing all other
lands, is the most worthy land, most excellent, and lady and sovereign of
all other lands, and is blessed and hallowed of the precious body and
blood of our Lord Jesu Christ; in the which land it liked him to take
flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, to environ that holy land with his
blessed feet; and there he would of his blessedness enombre him in the
said blessed and glorious Virgin Mary, and become man, and work many
miracles, and preach and teach the faith and the law of Christian men
unto his children; and there it liked him to suffer many reprovings and
scorns for us; and he that was king of heaven, of air, of earth, of sea
and of all things that be contained in them, would all only be clept king
of that land, when he said, _Rex sum Judeorum_, that is to say, ‘I am
King of Jews’; and that land he chose before all other lands, as the best
and most worthy land, and the most virtuous land of all the world: for it
is the heart and the midst of all the world, witnessing the philosopher,
that saith thus, _Virtus rerum in medio consistit_, that is to say, ‘The
virtue of things is in the midst’; and in that land he would lead his
life, and suffer passion and death of Jews, for us, to buy and to deliver
us from pains of hell, and from death without end; the which was ordained
for us, for the sin of our forme-father Adam, and for our own sins also;
for as for himself, he had no evil deserved: for he thought never evil ne
did evil: and he that was king of glory and of joy, might best in that
place suffer death; because he chose in that land rather than in any
other, there to suffer his passion and his death. For he that will
publish anything to make it openly known, he will make it to be cried and
pronounced in the middle place of a town; so that the thing that is
proclaimed and pronounced, may evenly stretch to all parts: right so, he
that was former of all the world, would suffer for us at Jerusalem, that
is the midst of the world; to that end and intent, that his passion and
his death, that was published there, might be known evenly to all parts
of the world.
See now, how dear he bought man, that he made after his own image, and
how dear he again-bought us, for the great love that he had to us, and we
never deserved it to him. For more precious chattel ne greater ransom ne
might he put for us, than his blessed body, his precious blood, and his
holy life, that he thralled for us; and all he offered for us that never
did sin.
Ah dear God! What love had he to us his subjects, when he that never
trespassed, would for trespassers suffer death! Right well ought us for
to love and worship, to dread and serve such a Lord; and to worship and
praise such an holy land, that brought forth such fruit, through the
which every man is saved, but it be his own default. Well may that land
be called delectable and a fructuous land, that was be-bled and moisted
with the precious blood of our Lord Jesu Christ; the which is the same
land that our Lord behight us in heritage. And in that land he would
die, as seised, to leave it to us, his children.
Wherefore every good Christian man, that is of power, and hath whereof,
should pain him with all his strength for to conquer our right heritage,
and chase out all the misbelieving men. For we be clept Christian men,
after Christ our Father. And if we be right children of Christ, we ought
for to challenge the heritage, that our Father left us, and do it out of
heathen men’s hands. But now pride, covetise, and envy have so inflamed
the hearts of lords of the world, that they are more busy for to
dis-herit their neighbours, more than for to challenge or to conquer
their right heritage before-said. And the common people, that would put
their bodies and their chattels, to conquer our heritage, they may not do
it without the lords. For a sembly of people without a chieftain, or a
chief lord, is as a flock of sheep without a shepherd; the which
departeth and disperpleth and wit never whither to go. But would God,
that the temporal lords and all worldly lords were at good accord, and
with the common people would take this holy voyage over the sea! Then I
trow well, that within a little time, our right heritage before-said
should be reconciled and put in the hands of the right heirs of Jesu
Christ.
And, for as much as it is long time passed, that there was no general
passage ne voyage over the sea; and many men desire for to hear speak of
the Holy Land, and have thereof great solace and comfort; I, John
Mandeville, Knight, albeit I be not worthy, that was born in England, in
the town of St. Albans, and passed the sea in the year of our Lord Jesu
Christ, 1322, in the day of St. Michael; and hitherto been long time over
the sea, and have seen and gone through many diverse lands, and many
provinces and kingdoms and isles and have passed throughout Turkey,
Armenia the little and the great; through Tartary, Persia, Syria, Arabia,
Egypt the high and the low; through Lybia, Chaldea, and a great part of
Ethiopia; through Amazonia, Ind the less and the more, a great part; and
throughout many other Isles, that be about Ind; where dwell many diverse
folks, and of diverse manners and laws, and of diverse shapes of men. Of
which lands and isles I shall speak more plainly hereafter; and I shall
devise you of some part of things that there be, when time shall be,
after it may best come to my mind; and specially for them, that will and
are in purpose for to visit the Holy City of Jerusalem and the holy
places that are thereabout. And I shall tell the way that they shall
hold thither. For I have often times passed and ridden that way, with
good company of many lords. God be thanked!
And ye shall understand, that I have put this book out of Latin into
French, and translated it again out of French into English, that every
man of my nation may understand it. But lords and knights and other
noble and worthy men that con Latin but little, and have been beyond the
sea, know and understand, if I say truth or no, and if I err in devising,
for forgetting or else, that they may redress it and amend it. For
things passed out of long time from a man’s mind or from his sight, turn
soon into forgetting; because that mind of man ne may not be comprehended
ne withholden, for the frailty of mankind.
CHAPTER I
_To teach you the Way out of England to Constantinople_
IN the name of God, Glorious and Almighty!
He that will pass over the sea and come to land [to go to the city of
Jerusalem, he may wend many ways, both on sea and land], after the
country that he cometh from; [for] many of them come to one end. But
troweth not that I will tell you all the towns, and cities and castles
that men shall go by; for then should I make too long a tale; but all
only some countries and most principal steads that men shall go through
to go the right way.
First, if a man come from the west side of the world, as England,
Ireland, Wales, Scotland, or Norway, he may, if that he will, go through
Almayne and through the kingdom of Hungary, that marcheth to the land of
Polayne, and to the land of Pannonia, and so to Silesia.
And the King of Hungary is a great lord and a mighty, and holdeth great
lordships and much land in his hand. For he holdeth the kingdom of
Hungary, Sclavonia, and of Comania a great part, and of Bulgaria that men
call the land of Bougiers, and of the realm of Russia a great part,
whereof he hath made a duchy, that lasteth unto the land of Nyfland, and
marcheth to Prussia. And men go through the land of this lord, through a
city that is clept Cypron, and by the castle of Neasburghe, and by the
evil town, that sit toward the end of Hungary. And there pass men the
river of Danube. This river of Danube is a full great river, and it
goeth into Almayne, under the hills of Lombardy, and it receiveth into
him forty other rivers, and it runneth through Hungary and through Greece
and through Thrace, and it entereth into the sea, toward the east so
rudely and so sharply, that the water of the sea is fresh and holdeth his
sweetness twenty mile within the sea.
And after, go men to Belgrade, and enter into the land of Bougiers; and
there pass men a bridge of stone that is upon the river of Marrok. And
men pass through the land of Pyncemartz and come to Greece to the city of
Nye, and to the city of Fynepape, and after to the city of Dandrenoble,
and after to Constantinople, that was wont to be clept Bezanzon. And
there dwelleth commonly the Emperor of Greece. And there is the most
fair church and the most noble of all the world; and it is of Saint
Sophie. And before that church is the image of Justinian the emperor,
covered with gold, and he sitteth upon an horse y-crowned. And he was
wont to hold a round apple of gold in his hand: but it is fallen out
thereof. And men say there, that it is a token that the emperor hath
lost a great part of his lands and of his lordships; for he was wont to
be Emperor of Roumania and of Greece, of all Asia the less, and of the
land of Syria, of the land of Judea in the which is Jerusalem, and of the
land of Egypt, of Persia, and of Arabia. But he hath lost all but
Greece; and that land he holds all only. And men would many times put
the apple into the image’s hand again, but it will not hold it. This
apple betokeneth the lordship that he had over all the world, that is
round. And the tother hand he lifteth up against the East, in token to
menace the misdoers. This image stands upon a pillar of marble at
Constantinople.