Then is inserted, an abstract from Lefort, Liège Herald, at the end of the 17th century, from Jean d’Outremeuse, which we quote from another publication of Dr. Bormans’ as it contains the final sentence: “Mort enfin, etc.” not to be found in the paper of the Bibliophile Belge.
In his introduction to the Chronique et geste de Jean des Preis dit d’Outremeuse, Brussels, F. Hayez, 1887 (Collection des Chroniques belges inédites), Dr. Stanislas Bormans writes, pp. cxxxiii.–cxxxiv.: “L’an M.CCC.LXXII, mourut à Liège, le 12 Novembre, un homme fort distingué par sa naissance, avant de s’y faire connoître sous le nom de Jean de Bourgogne dit à la Barbe. Il s’ouvrit néanmoins au lit de la mort à Jean d’Outremeuse, son compère, et institué son exécuteur testamentaire. De vrai il se titra, dans le précis de sa dernière volonté, messire Jean de Mandeville, chevalier, comte de Montfort en Angleterre, et seigneur de l’isle de Campdi et du château Perouse. Ayant cependant eu le malheur de tuer, en son pays, un comte qu’il ne nomme pas, il s’engagea à parcourir les trois parties du monde. Vint à Liège en 1343. Tout sorti qu’il étoit d’une noblesse très-distinguée, il aima de s’y tenir caché. Il étoit, au reste, grand naturaliste, profond philosophe et astrologue, y joint en particulier une connoissance très singulière de la physique, se trompant rarement lorsqu’il disoit son sentiment à l’égard d’un malade, s’il en reviendroit ou pas. Mort enfin, on l’enterra aux F. F. Guillelmins, au faubourg d’Avroy, comme vous avez vu plus amplement cydessous.”
It is not the first time that the names Jean de Mandeville and Jean à la Barbe are to be met with, as Ortelius, in his description of Liège, included in his Itinerary of Belgium, has given the epitaph of the knightly physician:[37(1)]
“Leodium primo aspectu ostentat in sinistra ripa (nam dextra vinetis plena est,) magna, & populosa suburbia ad collium radices, in quorum iugis multa sunt, & pulcherrima Monasteria, inter quae magnificum illud ac nobile D. Laurentio dicatum ab Raginardo episcopo, vt habet Sigebertus, circa ann. sal. M.XXV aedificatum est in hac quoq. regione Guilelmitarū Coenobium in quo epitaphiū hoc Ioannis à Mandeuille excepimus: Hic iacet vir nobilis Dn̄s Ioēs de Mandeville al Dcvs ad barbam miles dn̄s de Cāpdi natvs de Anglia medicīe pfessor devotissimvs orator et bonorvm largissimvs paupribus erogator qvi toto qvasi orbe lvstrato leodii diem vite sve clavsit extremvm āno Dni M CCC° LXXI°[37(2)] mēnsis novēbr die XVII.[37(3)]
“Haec in lapide, in quo caelata viri armati imago, leonem calcantis, barba bifurcata, ad caput manus benedicens, & vernacula haec verba: vos ki paseis sor mi pour lamovr deix proies por mi. Clypeus erat vacuus, in quo olim laminam fuisse dicebant æream, & eius in ea itidem caelata insignia, leonem videlicet argenteum, cui ad pectus lunula rubea, in campo caeruleo, quem limbus ambiret denticulatus ex auro, eius nobis ostendebāt & cultros, ephippiaque, & calcaria, quibus vsum fuisse asserebat in peragrando toto fere terrarum orbe, vt clarius eius testatur itinerarium, quod typis etiam excusum passim habetur.”[37]
Dr. Warner writes in the National Biography:
“There is abundant proof that the tomb of the author of the Travels was to be seen in the Church of the Guillemins or Guillelmites at Liège down to the demolition of the building in 1798. The fact of his burial there, with the date of his death, 17th November, 1372, was published by Bale in 1548 (Summarium, f. 149 b), and was confirmed independently by Jacob Meyer (Annales rerum Flandric., 1561, p. 165) and Lud. Guicciardini. (Paesi Bassi, 1567, p. 281.)”
In a letter dated from Bodley’s Library, 17th March, 1884, to The Academy, 12th April, 1884, No. 623, Mr. Edward B. Nicholson drew attention to the abstract from Jean d’Outremeuse, and came to the conclusion that the writer of Mandeville’s relation was a profound liar, and that he was the Liège Professor of Medicine, John of Burgundy or à la Barbe. He adds: “If, in the matter of literary honesty, John a Beard was a bit of a knave, he was very certainly no fool.”
On the other hand, M. Léopold Delisle,[38] has shown that two manuscripts, Nouv. acq. franç. 4515 (Barrois, 24) and Nouv. acq. franç. 4516 (Barrois, 185), were part formerly of one volume copied in 1371 by Raoulet of Orleans and given in the same year to King Charles V. by his physician Gervaise Crestien, viz. one year before the death of the so-called Mandeville; one of these manuscripts—now separate—contains the Book of Jehan de Mandeville, the other one, a treatise of “la preservacion de epidimie, minucion ou curacion d’icelle faite de maistre Jehan de Bourgoigne, autrement dit à la Barbe, professeur en médicine et cytoien du Liège,” in 1365. This bringing together is certainly not fortuitous.
Sir Henry Yule traces thus the sources of the spurious work: “Even in that part of the book which may be admitted with probability to represent some genuine experience, there are distinct traces that another work has been made use of, more or less, as an aid in the compilation, we might almost say, as a framework to fill up. This is the itinerary of the German knight William of Boldensele, written in 1336 at the desire of Cardinal Talleyrand de Perigord. A cursory comparison of this with Mandeville leaves no doubt of the fact that the latter has followed its thread, using its suggestions, and on many subjects its expressions, though digressing and expanding on every side, and too often eliminating the singular good sense of the German traveller. After such a comparison we may indicate as examples Boldensele’s account of Cyprus (Mandeville, Halliwell’s ed. 1866, p. 28, and p. 10), of Tyre and the coast of Palestine (Mandeville, 29, 30, 33, 34), of the journey from Gaza to Egypt (34), passages about Babylon of Egypt (40), about Mecca (42), the general account of Egypt (45), the pyramids (52), some of the particular wonders of Cairo, such as the slave-market, the chicken-hatching stoves, and the apples of Paradise, i.e. plantains (49), the Red Sea (57), the convent on Sinai (58, 60), the account of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (74–76), etc.”