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 JohnMandeville:

CHAP.

PAGE

The Prologue,

[1]

I.

To teach you the Way out of England to Constantinople,

[6]

II.

Of the Cross and the Crown of our Lord Jesu Christ,

[8]

III.

Of the City of Constantinople, and of the Faith of theGreeks,

[11]

IV.

Of the Way from Constantinople to Jerusalem. OfSaint John the Evangelist. And of the Ypocras Daughter,transformed from a Woman to a Dragon,

[16]

V.

[Of diversities in Cyprus; of the Road from Cyprus toJerusalem, and of the Marvel of a Fosse full of Sand],

[19]

VI.

Of many Names of Sultans, and of the Tower of Babylon,

[23]

VII.

Of the Country of Egypt; of the Bird Phoenix of Arabia; ofthe City of Cairo; of the Cunning to know Balm and to prove it;and of the Garners of Joseph,

[30]

VIII.

Of the Isle of Sicily; of the way from Babylon to theMount Sinai; of the Church of Saint Katherine and of all themarvels there,

[36]

IX.

Of the Desert between the Church of Saint Catherine andJerusalem. Of the Dry Tree; and how Roses came first intothe World,

[43]

X.

Of the Pilgrimages in Jerusalem, and of the Holy Placesthereabout,

[49]

XI.

Of the Temple of our Lord. Of the Cruelty of KingHerod. Of the Mount Sion. Of Probatica Piscina; andof Natatorium Siloe,

[54]

XII.

Of the Dead Sea; and of the Flome Jordan. Of theHead of Saint John the Baptist; and of the Usages of theSamaritans,

[67]

XIII.

Of the Province of Galilee, and where Antichrist shall beborn. Of Nazareth. Of the age of our Lady. Ofthe Day of Doom. And of the customs of Jacobites, Syrians;and of the usages of Georgians,

[73]

XIV.

Of the City of Damascus. Of three ways to Jerusalem;one, by land and by sea; another, more by land than by sea; andthe third way to Jerusalem, all by land,

[81]

XV.

Of the Customs of Saracens, and of their Law. Andhow the Soldan reasoned me, Author of this Book; and of thebeginning of Mohammet,

[88]

XVI.

Of the lands of Albania and of Libia. Of thewishings for watching of the Sparrow-hawk; and of Noah’sship,

[96]

XVII.

Of the Land of Job; and of his age. Of the array ofmen of Chaldea. Of the land where women dwell withoutcompany of men. Of the knowledge and virtues of the verydiamond,

[102]

XVIII.

Of the customs of Isles about Ind. Of the differencebetwixt Idols and Simulacres. Of three manner growing ofPepper upon one tree. Of the Well that changeth his odourevery hour of the day; and that is marvel,

[108]

XIX.

Of the Dooms made by St. Thomas’s hand. Ofdevotion and sacrifice made to Idols there, in the city ofCalamye; and of the Procession in going about the city,

[115]

XX.

Of the evil customs used in the Isle of Lamary. Andhow the earth and the sea be of round form and shape, by proof ofthe star that is clept Antarctic, that is fixed in the south,

[119]

XXI.

Of the Palace of the King of the Isle of Java. Ofthe Trees that bear meal, honey, wine, and venom; and of othermarvels and customs used in the Isles marching thereabout,

[125]

XXII.

How men know by the Idol, if the sick shall die ornot. Of Folk of diverse shape and marvellouslydisfigured. And of the Monks that gave their relief tobaboons, apes, and marmosets, and to other beasts,

[132]

XXIII.

Of the great Chan of Cathay. Of the royalty of hispalace, and how he sits at meat; and of the great number ofofficers that serve him,

[139]

XXIV.

Wherefore he is clept the great Chan. Of the Styleof his Letters: and of the Superscription about his great Sealand his Privy Seal,

[145]

XXV.

Of the Governance of the great Chan’s Court, andwhen he maketh solemn feasts. Of his Philosophers. And of his array, when he rideth by the country,

[151]

XXVI.

Of the Law and the Customs of the Tartarians dwelling inCathay. And how that men do when the Emperor shall die, andhow he shall be chosen,

[162]

XXVII.

Of the Realm of Tharse and the Lands and Kingdoms towardsthe Septentrional Parts, in coming down from the Land ofCathay,

[167]

XXVIII.

Of the Emperor of Persia, and of the Land of Darkness; andof other kingdoms that belong to the great Chan of Cathay, andother lands of his, unto the sea of Greece,

[169]

XXIX.

Of the Countries and Isles that be beyond the Land ofCathay; and of the fruits there; and of twenty-two kings enclosedwithin the mountains,

[174]

XXX.

Of the Royal Estate of Prester John. And of a richman that made a marvellous castle and cleped it Paradise; and ofhis subtlety,

[178]

XXXI.

Of the Devil’s Head in the Valley Perilous. And of the Customs of Folk in diverse Isles that be about in theLordship of Prester John,

[185]

XXXII.

Of the goodness of the folk of the Isle of Bragman. Of King Alexander. And wherefore the Emperor of Ind isclept Prester John,

[192]

XXXIII.

Of the Hills of Gold that Pismires keep. And of thefour Floods that come from Paradise Terrestrial,

[198]

XXXIV.

Of the Customs of Kings and other that dwell in the Islescoasting to Prester John’s Land. And of the Worshipthat the Son doth to the Father when he is dead,

[202]

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.