[1:] This has again been reprinted in 1884.
[2:] Colonel Yule, in "The Book of Ser Marco Polo," &c. (1871), says:—"And from the great frequency with which one encounters in catalogues both MSS. and early printed editions of Sir John Maundeville, I should suppose that the lying wonders of our English knight had a far greater popularity and more extensive diffusion than the veracious and more sober marvels of Polo. In Quaritch's last catalogue (November, 1870) there is only one old edition of Polo; there are nine of Maundeville. In 1839 there were nineteen MSS. of the latter catalogued in the British Museum Library. There are now only five of Marco Polo. At least twenty-five editions of Maundeville, and only five of Polo were printed in the fifteenth century."
INTRODUCTION.
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 "ye 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 yt 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 yt I had sene in diverse countreys; so that he with his wise counsel wold examine it, with diverse folke yt are at Rome, for there dwell men of all nations of the world, and a lytle time after whan he & his coũsel 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 ye 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.