The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundevile, Kt., which Treateth of the Way to Hierusalem; and of Marvayles of Inde, with Other Ilands and Countryes. Now Publish’d Entire from an Original MS. in the Cotton Library

About this book

8vo. f. [1] (blank), pp. [iii], v-xvi, [8], 384, [8] (last blank), ff. [2] (blank). Calf. Gilt spine and boards, marbled edges. Signet Library booklabel. Manuscript signature “Ex libr.: Bibl: scribar: Sig: Reg: 1810” on first blank. Apparently a reissue of the 1725 text with new title only; based principally upon BL Cotton MS Titus C.XVI. The work is attributed to the 14th century English traveler John Mandeville, which was in fact an English version of a text known as "Itinerarium," extending the great tradition of ‘travel liars’ from Ctesias and Euhemerus. It recounts the tales of a fictional fourteenth-century English traveler from St. Albans to the Holy Land and thence to Asia and other unchristianized regions. The original was probably written in Anglo-Norman French around 1357 and has been attributed to the Belgian compiler Jean d'Outremeuse. See E. Havens, “Babelic Confusion. Literary Forgery and the Bibliotheca Fictiva,” in W. Stephens & E. Havens (eds.), Literary forgery in early modern Europe, 1450-1800, Baltimore, 2018, pp. 59-60. Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.