THE BOOK OF JOHN MANDEVILLE: FOOTNOTES

1 Ingelond, England.

1–2 y-bore, born.

2 Seynt Albons, the monastery town of Saint Albans, near London; aboute, around.

3 se mervailes, see marvels; diversiteis, different kinds.

4 diverse, different; beistis, beasts; say, saw.

6 of, from; passid, crossed.

7 iles, islands; hit, it.

11 Bethtony, Bethany in Judea; hit, it.

12 y-halwed, hallowed; of, by.

13 liked, pleased.

15 wolde, wished to (i.e., chose to).

16 Cristyn, Christian; suffre, endure; repreves, insults.

18 beth y-conteyned on hem, are contained in them.

21 y-chose, chosen; vertuous, virtuous.

24 wolde, wished to; suffre, endure; of, by; bigge, buy (i.e., redeem).

25 eynde, end.

26 for, because of the; forme fader, ancestor.

26–27 As for Hymself nought, i.e., He did not suffer death for Himself.

27 yvel, evil; yll, evil.

28 wole, will.

29 knowe opynli, known publicly; crie, be announced.

30 other, or; parties, parts.

33 dire, dearly; bought, bought (i.e., redeemed).

33–34 licknys, likeness.

34 catel, treasure.

35 sette for, given to.

36 sogettes, subjects.

37 trespas, sin; Ryght, Very.

38 soche, such; preise, praise.

39 defaute, fault.

40 longeth, belongs; deyghe, die; seysed, took possession.

41 wherof, i.e., the capacity.

42 streynth hem, exert themselves; ryght, true.

43 myssetrewantes, misbelievers.

44 right, true; aughte, ought; chalenge, claim.

45 strange, foreign.

47 bien, are; bisy, busy; deserte her, disinherit (take from) their.

48 comyn, common.

49 catel, possessions.

50 asemblé, a gathering; beth, are.

51 parteth asoundre, divide asunder; woot, know; whyder, where.

52–53 acoord...peple, accord with one another and with the common people.

53 viage, voyage; see, sea; trowe, believe.

54 reconsiled, recovered.

55 eyres, heirs.

56 hyre, hear.

57 sey, seen.

58 thow, although; bore, born.

59 passed, crossed.

60 sithe hiderward, ever since then.

61 seye, seen; leygh, resided.

62 Turky, Turkey; Surry, Syria.

63 Hermony, Armenia; More, Greater; Tartari, Tartary; Perce, Persia.

64 Libie, Libya; Caldee, Chaldea; party, part; Amazayn, Amazonia.

65 Inde, India; iles, islands; aboute, nearby.

66 shappes, shapes.

67 plenerly, fully; divise, tell; parti, part.

68 seye, seen.

69 hem, them; wole, wish; beth in purpos, intend.

70 weyes, routes; thider, thither.

74 waies after, routes according to.

75 eynde, destination; troweth, believe.

77 stedes, places.

78 Ferst, First; Ingelonde, England.

79 Almayne, Germany.

80 marcheth, extends; Poyaline, Poland.

82 right, truly; holdeth, controls; fele, many.

83 party, part.

84 Rosse, Russia.

85 lastith, extends.

88 Danubye, Danube.

89 hym, itself.

93 brugge, bridge.

94 Sternes, i.e., Sophia.

96 Bessamoran, i.e., Byzantium; comunely, ordinarily.

99 image, statue.

100 hit, i.e., the statue of Justinian; woned, accustomed.

101 tockne, symbol; party, part.

102 gret party, large part.

103 Romayne, Romania.

104 Jude, Judea.

105 Percie, Persia.

107 in tockne, as a sign; manasse mysdowers, threaten evildoers.

110 Croys, i.e., at the Crucifixion; lyveth, believe.

111 Cipre, Cyprus.

113 woot, know [that].

114 y-do, done (i.e., the monks’ false claim).

116 maner, kinds of.

117 pece, piece; heed, head.

118 overthwart, crosswise.

119 mortais, mortice; table, tablet.

120 title, inscription; Ebru, Hebrew; Greu, Greek.

121 Jhesu...Judeorum, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

122 wened, believed.

123 als, as; dured, endured.

124 rote, rot.

125 wente, believed; stonke, stunk.

127 greved, distressed; overthwart, crosswise.

129 table, tablet.

130 tokned, symbolized; Noe, Noah.

131 culver, dove.

132 trowed, thought.

133 bate, dispute.

137 her, their.

138 sike, sick; bad, ordered.

140 heel, health; theder, thither.

142 tho, then; toke, gave; graynes, seeds.

143 als so sone as, as soon as; tho, those.

144 grave, bury.

148 eyndelys, endless; here, their; defaute, fault.

149 i-hudde, hidden; roch, rock.

150 into, until; Seynt Eline, Saint Helen.

152 sheo, she.

155 overthwart, crossbeam.

158 beth, are.

159 y-dight, adorned.

160 somtyme, formerly; wham, whom.

161 i-leyd to wedde, pledged.

162 hit, i.e., the crown; risshes, rushes.

163 wecle, harmful; sey, seen.

165 departed, separated; parties, parts.

167 semeth, seems to be.

169 breken, break.

170 thider, thither.

173 albespine, hawthorn.

174 heed, head; faste, firmly.

175 visage, face.

176 vertues, powers.

177 deer, injure.

178 yvel, evil; wheer, where.

179 deneyd, denied.

181 Anne, Annas.

182 barbarines, barberry.

183 als, as.

183–84 Cayphas, Caiaphas.

184 englenter, briar rose.

185 tho, then.

188–89 halfen deel, half part.

191 Almayne, Germany.

192 lyth, lies; hure, i.e., St. Helen brought St. Anne’s body.

195 grave, buried.

196 vestel, vessel.

198 right, truly.

200 Bouch, Mouth.

201 Brace, Arm; Seynt Gorge, St. George; closeth, encloses.

202 was y-woned to be, there used to be.

203 ful, very; playn, plain.

205 Mount Athos, Mount Athanasi; passeth, surpasses.

206 spechis, languages; obesshant, obedient.

210 auter, altar.

211 tumbe, tomb; feste, festival; yer, year.

212 conseylis, councils; troweth, believe.

214 Macedone, Macedonia.

215 departith, separates; Trachie, Thrace.

216 Aches, i.e., Athos; shade, shadow.

217 neygh, nearly.

218 feile, feel.

219 drigh, dry.

219–20 somtyme, formerly.

220 thilke, this; here, their; i-moisted, moistened.

221 poudre, dust.

223 faute, fault.

224 y-dight, adorned; justyng, jousting; stages, tiers.

225 thilke, these; vauted, vaulted.

229 fyn, excellent; Ebru, Hebrew.

230 Gru, Greek.

233 yit, still.

235 yit, yet.

236 obesshent, obedient.

241 playn, complete.

246 sogettis, subjects.

247 in purpos, intending; stanche, satisfy.

249 loof, loaf.

250 in tockinyng, as a symbol; Maundé, Maundy Thursday.

251 sike, the sick.

252 unctioun, oil for anointing.

253 afor, before.

255 kyndely, natural.

256 ons, once.

257 i-gete, begotten; her prestis, their priests.

258 oker, usury; sillen benefis, sell benefices to ecclesiastical offices; simonie, usury.

262 Youle Eve, Christmas Eve; Pasche Eve, Easter Eve.

263 auters, altars; and, if.

264 falle, happens; happe, chance.

266 tocknyng, a sign.

267 chavyng, shaving.

268–69 defendid, forbidden.

269 als, such as.

270 als, as well as; eyron, eggs.

271 tho, those.

273 digniteis, offices.

275 thowe, although; yyt, yet; likith, is pleasing.

276 hyre, hear.

278 setten, written down; wite, know.

279 heres, theirs; desier, desire.

282 ful, very.

283 Brace, Arm.

284 mastik, resin.

287 eelde, age.

289 autre, altar; tumbe, tomb.

290 woned, accustomed to.

291 translatid, transported.

292 haldeth, hold.

293 by his lyve, during his life.

294 quyk, alive.

295 onto, until.

296 apartly, plainly.

297 meve, move.

301 then, thence; gaff, gave.

306 here, her.

307 shewith her, shows herself; but if, unless.

310 der, dare; hure, her.

311 heo, she.

312 ferne, long; doughti, brave.

316 bare, carried; maugre his teeth, despite his efforts.

318 wist, knew.

320–21 kembid hure heed, combed her hair.

321 trosour, treasure.

322 wente, thought; comyn womman, prostitute.

323 dele with here, have sex with her; abood, remained; tho, then; shade, reflection.

324 wolde, wanted.

325 lemman, lover; wher, whether.

326–27 baad hym, told him to.

328 morghe, morrow.

330 thow, although; ghit, yet.

332 nough, now.

336 fleyghe, fled.

338 anoon, immediately.

339 sithen hiderward, ever since then; se, see.

342 thenne, thence.

344 yit, still; pistle, epistle.

345 fer, far.

347 wexen, grow.

351 y-do, put.

355 thow, thou; gyte, begotten; lette, neglect.

356 thee worth, you will; yede, went.

357 fley, flew; parolous, dangerous; anoon, immediately.

358 passages, routes.

362 haven, harbor.

364 monokis, monks.

365 weneth, believe.

367 Genonon, Sozomon; solemnté, solemnity.

368 Seynt Hillari, St. Hilarion.

369 paupyons, panthers; libardes, leopards.

370 sumdel more, somewhat larger.

371 maner, custom.

374 hatter, hotter.

375 strange, foreign; formes, tables.

376 hem were levere, they would rather.

378 haven, harbor.

379 entré, port of entry; somtyme, formerly.

380 destried, destroyed.

381 ryght, directly.

383 bye hem, purchase for themselves; bossh many, many a merchant ship.

387 thee baar, bore you; pappes, breasts.

388 thow, thou.

390 Seynt Savouris, St. Savior.

392 Helias, Elijah; raysed, raised from the dead.

394 somtyme Enyas, formerly Aeneas’.

396 Brenche, Beirut.

397 journeis, days’ journey.

402 yldest, oldest.

404 ryveth, arrives.

408 furlang, furlongs.

409 Carme, Mount Carmel; Elias, Elijah; frere Carmes, Carmelite friars.

410 funded, founded.

411 y-wasted, ruined.

412 lift, left.

414 Scale de Terreys, the Ladder of Tyre.

415 Fosse Ynone, Foss (Ditch) of Memnon; nyghe, nearly; brode, broad.

416 verres, glass.

417 fer, far.

420 fosse, ditch; troble, roil; do, put.

421 wex, become.

423 swolwyng, gulf.

426 slow, slew; fort, strong.

427 then, thence.

430 soudan, sultan.

431 sikerly, securely; or, before.

433 ful sondy, very sandy.

434 vitalles, food.

436 Egipt Canaphat, Egypt.

443 fuyr, fire.

445 soudan, sultan.

446 rooch, rock.

447 taketh, take care of.

449 soudier, a soldier; werris, wars.

453 y-gete, acquired.

457 he, i.e., the sultan.

458 heyr, higher.

460 with, by.

461 yit, still.

462 orison, prayer.

464 oon contré...stede, a country or a place; al oon name, all the same name.

466 sithen, after.

468 vitaylis, food.

469 ney, nearly.

470 Arabynes, Arabians; Bydoynes, Bedouins; Ascopardes, desert people.

471 maner, kinds of.

472 beistis, beasts’.

473 Reede See, Red Sea.

473–74 defaute, lack.

476 tylieth, cultivate; eny, i.e., any of them.

477 flessh, meat; ageyn, against.

479 tellen noght by, have no regard for.

480 soudan, sultan; werre, war.

481 hym2, i.e., the sultan; bare, carried.

482 hem, themselves.

485 Bersabe, Beersheba; somtyme, formerly.

487 Urie, Uriah; whas wyf, whose wife (i.e., Bathsheba); wyse, wise man.

489 Ebron, Hebron; neye, nearly.

490 Teres, Tears.

490–91 for as moche as, because.

492 Caim slow, Cain slew; somtyme, formerly; Philistiens, Philistines.

493 gyauntes, giants; Josue, Joshua; Calofe, Caleb; aspie, discover.

494 Londe of Promission, Promised Land.

497 hongynge, overhang; hull, hill.

498 corneld, crenelated; Sarasynnes, Saracens.

499 lygen, rest.

502 other, or; on is, one is.

504 Habrahamis, i.e., Abraham’s; he, i.e., Abraham.

506 hym toke...hous, i.e., Abraham took the angel into his house.

508 gete, begot.

510 Damas, Damascus; translatyd, transported.

514 lasteth, extends.

515 bad, ordered.

516 draweth, extract.

519 Loth, Lot.

522 hit hath be, it has existed.

524 hertes, heartwood.

527 Londe of Promission, Promised Land.

528 messe, liturgy of the Mass; wexe, grow.

529 turned, converted.

532 the fallyng yvel, epilepsy.

533 y-holde, considered.

534 Bethleem, Bethlehem.

535 perlous, dangerous; wodes, woods; lykynge, pleasant; Bedlem, Bethlehem.

539 toures, towers.

540 pynacles, turrets; corneld, crenelated.

543 Floryshid, Flowering.

544 heo, she; demed, judged.

545 brende, burnt; wode, wood.

547 that, so that.

548 ride, red.

549 rosers, rose bushes.

550 y-seyn afore, seen before.

552 queir, choir.

553 gres, steps; y-dyght, decorated.

555 thre paas, three paces; cribbe of the oxe and the asse, i.e., the manger where Jesus was laid.

559 sommen, together.

562 gres, steps.

563 Innocentis, the male children killed by Herod in an attempt to destroy the infant Jesus.

565 sautre, psalter; Ebru, Hebrew.

566 here, herself.

567 pappes, breasts; greved, distressed.

568 reed, red.

571 plenté, abundance; here, their.

572 Macametis, Mohammed’s; he acurseth, he (Mohammed) curses; tho, those.

573 for, because of the; heremyte, hermit.

573–74 in his dronknes, when drunk.

574 malys, malice.

577 bryngeth forth, rear; gryces, pigs.

578 brother, a brother.

580 beoff, beef; travayle, labor.

581 telynge, tilling.

582 Bedlem, Bethlehem.

583 lemans, concubines; bote, only.

584 beryng, i.e., birth.

585 Joseph moder, the mother of Joseph.

587 in tocknyng, signifying.

590 condiht, conduit.

591 Solomee, Salem.

592 in samen, together.

595 Jude, of Judea.

596 marcheth, extends.

598 the Gret See, the Mediterranean; Syrry, Syria; Cipre, Cyprus.

602–03 a cherche...deye, a confused way of saying that the church of Mercaritot was named for St. Mercaritot.

603 wham, whom.

604 deol, sorrow.

608 synwers, sinners.

609 mysbylive, unbelieving (i.e., non-Christians).

610 to, too.

612 holy grave, Christ’s sepulcher.

612–13 y-closed, enclosed.

613 cherche round, round church.

613–14 y-helid, covered.

614 leed, lead; a fayr tour and strong for bellys, a tower for bells that is fair and strong.

618 hythe, height.

619 siththe, since.

620 forfyde hem, misbehaved themselves.

621 pecys, pieces.

624 lyghtith, illuminates.

625 oure, hour.

627 morteyse, mortice.

628 reed y-medled, red mixed.

629 pyned, tortured.

630 mortais, mortice; Noeis, Noah’s; in tocknyng of, as a sign that.

631 bought, redeemed.

632 auter, altar; Godfray the Boleyn, Godfrey of Bouillon.

633 Baudewyn, Baldwin.

634 Gru, Greek.

637 hele, salvation; myd, middle.

638 pyght, placed.

640 seist, sees.

643 Quadraginta...huic, apparently a corruption of Vulgate Psalm 94:10.

646 Mars, March.

647 Gayus Cesar, Julius Caesar.

649–50 by a good countes … the 40 yer, i.e., according to the 10-month calendar, Christ’s age was 40.

650 after, according to.

653 pylour, pillar; y-skorgid, scourged; gres, steps.

654 cleped, called; Seynt Elene, St. Helen, mother of the emperor Constantine.

655 asayed, tested.

658 neygh, nearby.

661 wan, won.

662 Asy, Asia; Sirrye, Syria.

663 Perce, Persia.

664 Ynde, India.

665 paynems, pagans.

668 compas, circle; Joseph of Barmathia, Joseph of Arimathea.

673 aperyd, appeared; Uprysynge, Resurrection.

674–75 chanouns, canons; Seynt Benet, St. Benedict.

675 priour, prior.

680 prestes, priests.

681–82 Pater Noster, Our Father.

683 orisons in privité, private prayers. 685 feblist, most vulnerable.

687 Josaphat, Jehosaphat.

688 Seynt Stevene, St. Stephen; stened, stoned.

689 Gilden, Golden.

690 ageyn, before; yyt, still.

691 stappes, hoof marks.

692 pace, paces.

695 Marie Cleophe, Mary Cleophas; Marie Magdalene, Mary Magdalene.

696 to-drow her her, tore their hair; dayde, died.

697 the 8 score pace, 160 steps.

698 hye, tall.

699 heelyd, covered; suffre, allow.

702 seel, seal.

703 synet, signet.

706 encline, bow; take...heed, allow it to touch their head.

707 redith, read; profre, offer.

710 Charlemayn, Charlemagne; prepuys, the foreskin.

713 lestid, lasted; Titus, and Vaspasianus son, Titus, who was Vespasian’s son.

715 leyt brenne, caused to burn.

717 oo, one.

718 pens, pence.

719 Julius Apostata, Julian the Apostate.

723 Adrian, Hadrian.

727 let close and walle, caused to be enclosed and walled.

731 thiderynne, therein.

732 of, off; shone, shoes.

735 hithe, height.

737 stage, tier; grecis, steps.

738 Halwes, Holies.

739 prelate, churchman of superior rank.

740 in stages...degré, on tiers according to their rank.

741 ontrees, entrances.

742 poule, pool.

745 Beleth, Bethel.

748 Aarons yerd, the rod of Aaron.

751 hym, it.

755 pottes, vessels; ensensures, censers.

757 cherubyn, cherubim; trumpes, trumpets.

758 loves, loaves.

760 scale, stairway.

761 wist, knew; heilde, beheld.

762 hym, himself.

763 on, in.

764 shethe, sheath.

765 y-stened, stoned.

766 cleff, cleaved.

768 denounced, proclaimed.

772 dyde sle Urye, he had Uriah killed.

774 thilke, those.

777 Zacary, Zechariah.

779 Templers, Knights Templar.

783–84 leet translate, transported.

785 entrees, entrances.

786 stere, move.

788 in the palasye y-helyd, with palsy healed.

791 let sle, caused to be killed.

792 fel, cruel.

794 waxe out of his wytte, went crazy; long, for a long time.

799 wyste, knew.

800 of, off.

803 delyveryd, freed.

807 Ascolonyte, Herod the Great.

808–09 Seynt Jame, St. James (brother of St. John).

811 most partye, largest part.

815 with, by.

818 entré, beginning.

821 scorged, scourged; was...the bysshopes of the Lawe, i.e., belonged to the spiritual leader of the Jews (other versions identify him as Annas).

822 3, i.e., three times.

823 Maundy, Maundy Thursday, i.e., Last Supper; apeyred, appeared.

824 Uprysyng, Resurrection; shytte, shut.

825 asay, test.

826 leved he ferst, he (Thomas) first believed.

828–29 Wit Soneday, Whitsun (Pentecost).

829 licknes, likeness.

830 Pasche, Passover.

831 sey, saw; prevy, secret.

832 strengre, more fortified.

835 stones cast, stone’s throw; jugged, judged.

836 Cayphas, Caiaphas’.

837–38 Natatori Silo, the Pool of Siloam.

840 pens, pence; Fariseis, Pharisees.

841 synwed, sinned; disseyved ryghtfull, deceived righteous.

845 biried, buried.

847 Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist.

851 lykyng, pleasant.

852 that1, i.e., that mountain.

854 overtwert, across; yede, went.

856 elde, age.

858 Gessamain, Gethsemane; byleved, left.

861 Josaphat, Jehosaphat.

862 Olyvete, Olivet.

863 heyer, higher.

866 stappes, footprints.

867 blake canons, i.e., Augustinian canons.

871 her, theirs.

872 Pater Noster, Our Father; Besfage, Bethphage.

873 Betonye, Bethany.

874 Symon lepre, Simon the leper; herborwed, sheltered.

875 y-called Julian, [later] named Julian.

876 herborgh, lodging.

877 Mari Maudeleyn, Mary Magdalen.

878 eyen, eyes; her here, her hair.

879 Lazar arered, Lazarus raised.

880 Assumpcioun, Assumption; gerdel, belt.

882 Day of Dome, Day of Judgment.

884 Rysyng, Resurrection.

887 toke Josue, Joshua captured.

889 Raab, Rahab; comune womman, prostitute.

893 take mede, receive the reward.

894 Flom, River.

897 maked, made into.

899 a greet while, for a long time.

900 seet, sat.

902 departeth, separates.

903 Sara, Zoar.

904 better, bitter; aspaltoun, asphalt.

904–05 as greet pecis as, in pieces as large as.

905 forlang, furlongs.

906 beist, animal; leve, live.

907 assayed, tested.

908 ire, iron.

909 gronde, the bottom; kynde, nature.

911 venjaunce, vengeance.

913 Flom, River.

914 sonke, sank; Gomor, Gomorrah.

915 sodomyte, sodomy; regned on, flourished in.

916 Loth, Lot.

918 dronke, drunk.

919 delede, had sexual intercourse; trowed, believed.

920 Noeis, Noah’s; men, i.e., children.

923 ageyn, back.

924 heit, was called.

926 elde, age.

932 Libanye, Lebanon.

935 Surrye, Syria.

942 payd, satisfied.

943 culver, dove.

946 mesel, leper.

947 whoch, which; entré, beginning.

948 plentouous, abundant.

949 marche, borders.

951 Ryal Mount, Mount Royal.

952 Baudewyn, Baldwin.

957 heyghe, high.

958 Anna, Hannah.

959 Sybole, Shiloh; Elye, Eli.

961 ney by, nearby.

964 Samaritane, Samaritan.

965 plenteuous, abundant.

966 Neaple, Neopolis, i.e., new city.

967–68 in leed, encased in lead.

973 kyndes, tribes.

974 byhedid, beheaded.

975 Makaryn, Machareus; translated, transported.

976 Julius Apostata, Julian the Apostate.

978 Lombe, Lamb.

979 Seynt Tecle, St. Thecla.

980 worship, honor.

981 y-closed, enclosed.

982 Theodosy, Theodosius.

984 halfendell, half.

985 vestel, vessel; leed, put.

986 Gene, Genoa.

987 Amyas, Amiens.

988 wot, know.

992 acounted, known.

994 deme, judge.

995 after, according to; wrappeth, wrap.

999 y-wyte, know.

1004 on, one; Land of Promission, Promised Land.

1007 Antecrist, Antichrist.

1010 colver, dove.

1011 norshed, nurtured.

1013 Cane, Cana.

1018–19 y-gete, conceived.

1020 salved, greeted.

1022 closet, room.

1024 norshed, nurtured.

1031 stappes, footprints.

1032 agast, afraid.

1035 had chelde, gave birth to her child.

1036 leved, lived.

1039 sey, saw.

1040 Hely, Elijah.

1042 her, here.

1043 arise, risen.

1044 arere, raise.

1045 Dome, Doom (i.e., Last Judgment).

1046 Pasch, Easter.

1048 Ermon, Hermon.

1049 arered, raised; wyduwe sone, son of the widow.

1050 Tybourne, Tiberias; See, Sea.

1052 broke, brook; forlonge, furlongs.

1053 brede, breadth.

1054 yede drie foot, walked dry-footed.

1055 sonke, sunk.

1066 diverseth, differ; of, from.

1068 shryve, confess.

1075 Forwhy, Therefore.

1076 shreve, confessed.

1077 conne, know; Sauter book, Psalter; alegge, read.

1078 Seynt Austyn, St. Augustine; Seynt Gregore, St. Gregory.

1080 y-turnd, turned away [from it]; hope, expect.

1082 Hillary, St. Hilary.

1084 pershe, perish; twynclyng, the twinkling.

1085 despisyng, rejection.

1086 shryve, confess.

1087 alonliche, alone; ferste, early.

1088 sithe, after.

1089 hy, they; skyle, reason.

1090 but, unless; kynde, nature.

1091 convenable, appropriate.

1095 crones, crowns of their heads; clerkes, educated men; roonde, round.

1097 Cristen of girdyng, belted Christians; were, wear; gerdeles, belts.

1098 Nideus, Nestorians.

1100 wonderfull, amazing.

1102 eer, before.

1103 Damas, Damascus; good, goods.

1106 founded Ebreus Damask, Eleazar of Damascus founded.

1107 hoped, expected.

1108 eyr, heir; Caym, Cain.

1110 Syrie, Seir; fucissions, physicians.

1113 fusike, medicine.

1115 cleped, called.

1117–18 table of tre, wood panel.

1120 oyle, oil.

1121 vestel, vessel.

1127 fresith, freezes; forst, frost.

1128 Beruch, Beirut.

1129 Cipre, Cyprus; Tyri, Tyre.

1130 right, directly.

1135 passe hit, proceed that way (i.e., the longest way).

1136 defaute, lack; costages, money.

1140 Gene, Genoa.

1141 marches, region.

1142 ryveth, arrives.

1147 costes, coasts; Jafphe, Jaffa.

1151 licknes, likenesses.

1152 George, St. George.

1155 mowe, may; savour, smell; is lever, prefer.

1159 Bras of Seynt Jorge, Arm of St. George.

1162 Torkye, Turkey; Nyke, Nicea.

1165 Aunteoch, Antioch.

1167 Romayn, Romany.

1168 costande, sailing along the coast.

1170 brygge, bridge.

1175 pylour, i.e., city boundary.

1180 Triple, Tripoli.

1185 Sesarye Philippum, Cesarea Philippi.

1190 perelous, dangerous; travel, difficulty.

1191–92 Almayne, Germany.

1192 Spruse, Prussia; Tartaryse, Tartary.

1193 y-holde of, controlled by; Cane, Khan.

1194 last, extends.

1195 sondy, sandy.

1196 corne, wheat; pesyn, peas.

1197 soupeth, sup.

1198 ratons, rats; meese, mice.

1199 make, cook.

1200 mocke, dung.

1205 neteles, nettles.

1207 Rossye, Russia.

1208 Lettow, Lithuania.

1210 marys, marshes.

1211 but yf, unless; forst, frost.

1213 Pruys, Prussia.

1215 vitayles, food.

1217 cariage, carriages; dreys, sleds; mowe, may.

1220 kepith, capture; vylonye, harm.

1221 hatter, hotter.

1222 styve, heated room.

1229 party, part; Akkaron, the Koran.

1231 Macamete, Mohammed.

1236 ther, i.e., in Paradise.

1241 lerid of, taught by.

1246 ryghtwys, righteous.

1248 delid, dealt; sorceryes, witchcraft.

1251 wende, thought.

1254 her, their (i.e., the Saracens’).

1255 gradde, wept.

1259 deme, judge.

1261 mesalles, lepers.

1262 quyke, alive.

1265 constrayned, compelled.

1267 on, about.

1269 fay, faith; lightly, easily.

1270 wyteth, know.

1275 Dome, Judgment; demed, judged.

1277 Ackaron, Koran.

1278 lemmans, lovers.

1280 hym byhoveth, it is necessary for him; godes, goods.

1282 oo, one.

1284 gost, spirit; on lyve, alive.

1287 fay, faith; tho, those.

1289 after the lettre, literally; gostly, spiritually.

1291 maketh quyke, gives life.

1293 toke, brought.

1296 lete voyde, emptied.

1297 in counseil, secretly.

1300 Sikerly, Certainly; maketh no force of, care nothing for.

1304 ynow, enough.

1305 enforseth hem, exert themselves; bygyle, deceive.

1306 prout, proud.

1307 werth, wear.

1308–09 do almes dede, give charity.

1315 do ageyn, act against.

1320 comens, common people.

1324 devised, described.

1326 mervayll, marvel; sclaundre, blame.

1328 withdrawe, turned away.

1334 he, i.e., Mohammed.

1335 entré, entrance.

1336 Machamete byfell, happened to Mohammed.

1337–38 asterlaberer, user of an astrolabe.

1338 prins, prince.

1340 fallyng yvell, epilepsy.

1341 wroth, angry.

1345 kynde, tribe; Agar, Hagar.

1346 chamberer, servant.

1350 Synay, Sinai.

1352 wende, went.

1353 leet all his men walke, made all his men stay awake.

1357 put up, put away.

1360 leved, believed.

1361 soth, the truth.

1363 prevely, privately.

1364 calamele, sugarcane.

1365 falleth, happens.

1366 skyll, reason; Larchesleven, a Saracen religious leader.

1368 on, one.

1378 sithen, since.

1380 yles, places.

1381 flodes, rivers.

1382 Paradys Terrestre, the Earthly Paradise.

1383 Mesopotanye, Mesopotamia; Caldé, Chaldea.

1384 Tygre, Tigris; Mody, Media; Perce, Persia.

1385 Syrri, Syria; Palastyn, Palestine.

1386 Fimes, Phoenicia; See Metterane, Mediterranean Sea.

1387 Marrok, Morocco; Greet See, Black Sea; byyonde, beyond.

1388 myle of Lombardye, Lombard miles.

1391 Gene, Genoa.

1392 coste, coast.

1393 Trapasond, Trebizond.

1394 marches, regions.

1395 Attonas, Athanasius; Elisaundre, Alexandria.

1408 fayre, faerie (i.e., the supernatural world).

1409 wake, keep awake.

1412 asayed, tested.

1415 bade aske, told him to ask.

1416 dever, task.

1418 fole, fool.

1419 noght worldly, not of this world.

1423–24 in subjeccioun of, ruled by.

1424 good, goods.

1425 out of reson, unreasonable.

1426 needfull, poor.

1428 wake, keep awake.

1435 Archa Noe, Noah’s Ark.

1436 yit, still.

1439 theder, thither.

1441 plancke, plank [from the Ark].

1443 aforsed hym, forced himself; at the thrydde part of the hylle upward, a third of the way up the hill.

1447 suche, i.e., otherwise.

1448 gabbe, lie.

1453 thre kynges, i.e., the Wise Men.

1454 to make present, to give gifts.

1462 plenteuous, abundant.

1465 sithe, after.

1472 marcheth, borders on.

1473 lothlych, loathly.

1475 gret here, big hair.

1476 Amasoyn, Amazonia.

1480 good blood, highborn men.

1487 knave, male; con, are able to.

1489 pappe, breast; for beryng of a shyld, to carry a shield.

1490 shetyng, shooting.

1491 werryours, warriors; y-souded, united.

1492 closed, enclosed.

1494 profyte, good.

1494 Kyng Alysaundre, Alexander the Great.

1499 trobel, turgid.

1500 somdel salt, somewhat salty.

1502 mervayl, a marvel; covert, covering.

1506 parties, parts.

1507 tempered, temperate.

1508 forst, frost.

1509 dyamaunde, diamond; trobul, murky.

1511 nessh, soft.

1512 Cipre, Cyprus; Macydoyn, Macedonia.

1513 mas, mass; myne, mine.

1515 adamaundes, lodestones.

1516 hasel notes, hazelnuts.

1517 maule, male; femaule, female.

1520 asayd, tested.

1523 vertu, power.

1524 lift, left.

1527 hole, whole.

1528 and, if.

1532 y-traveyled, oppressed.

1535 swete, sweat.

1537 adamaund, lodestone; draweth, attracts; nedel, needle.

1539 vertuous, powerful.

1540 preve, test.

1541 byyonde, beyond the; falleth, happens.

1544 elys, eels; mille, thousand.

1548 torn, orbit; signes, astrological signs; late steryng, slow moving.

1549 good wyll, desire.

1549–50 mech styryng, much traveling.

1550 our contré, i.e., England.

1551 leyght, quick; way, travel.

1553 leyghtlych, quickly.

1555 Gene, Genoa.

1556 partyes, regions; bygge, buy.

1557 ballockys, testicles; shankes, legs.

1558 byndeth, bind; straytly, tightly; oynementz, ointments.

1559 therfore, for that purpose.

1560 undren, about 9 a.m.

1562 yre, iron; bondes, bands.

1563 drawe, attract.

1564 corne, wheat.

1567 addres, adders.

1568 mete on the morwenynge, encounter in the morning.

1568–69 simulacres, images.

1570 what thyng a man wol, whatever thing one chooses.

1571 on, one.

1574 were somtyme, lived previously.

1576 kynde, nature; ryght wel with, pleasing to.

1581 fure, fire; skyles, reasons.

1583 quyke, living.

1586 eddres, adders.

1588 ratons, rats.

1589 her, here; mastyves, mastiffs.

1595 oure, hour.

1596 hole, whole (i.e., healthy).

1599 leven, live.

1600 vertuous, virtuous; gyngyner, ginger.

1602 profyt, good.

1603 travayle, work.

1605 gadreth, collects.

1606 donge, dung; vestel, vessel; prelate, churchman of superior rank.

1610 fulfeld thorgh vertu, fulfilled by the power.

1612 as they ben of degré, according to their rank.

1615 gostes, spirits.

1616 sleyn, kill; sprengeth, sprinkle.

1618 in toknyng, as a sign.

1621 good resoun, right.

1627 honde, hand.

1628 y-ryse, risen.

1629 thow, thou; wanhope, despair; trywe, faithful.

1630 bare, uncovered.

1632 ryght, claim; mater, argument; bylles, formal statements.

1634 ryghtfull, honest.

1640 kytte, cut; shankes, legs; thyes, thighs.

1643 pase, step.

1644 ensense, incense.

1645 Goddis body, i.e., the Host.

1646 stocke, basin.

1652 chayre, chariot.

1653 solempnité, ceremony.

1657 wheles, wheels.

1658 to-broke, broken.

1659 joye, i.e., joy in heaven.

1660 overthwert, opposite.

1662 trone, throne.

1664 good wylle, consent; worship, honor.

1666 letenyes, litanies.

1667 askes, ashes; relykes, relics.

1668 hit, i.e., such a relic; doute, fear.

1675 in comune, in common.

1680 haveth delyd, who have had sex.

1682 cornes, crops.

1683 loke, lock.

1684 gladloker, more gladly.

1688 y-clepid, called; evene, due; stereth, moves.

1689 y-lad, guided.

1690 Anteryke, Antarctic; evene agenst, just opposite.

1693 apereth, appear.

1696 after that, according to what.

1697 hey, high.

1698 heyth, height.

1701 styreth, move.

1702 extre, axletree.

1704 heythe, height.

1707 4 score, 80.

1708 bote, only.

1709 sykerly, truly.

1710 hadde shipyng, could get passage.

1711 thylke, that same.

1724 y-preved, proved; and, if.

1727 hele, salvation.

1736 wende, went; seynge, seeing.

1741 travayl, hardship.

1743 droff, it drove.

1745–46 of all hyt be that, even though.

1746 simple men of connyng, men of simple understanding.

1748 by more skyle, more reasonably.

1751 of noght, from nothing.

1752 if be al, though it is.

1757 repreve, gainsay.

1758 more aboute, bigger around.

1759 that, what. 1760 by, is.

1761 lymes, limbs.

1763 the lasse, smaller.

1769 forlanges, furlongs.

1770 also, as.

1774 heythe, height.

1775 y-cliped, called.

1780 merke hem, mark themselves.

1780–81 hoot yre that, hot iron so that.

1786 gyngyner, ginger; clowes, cloves; canel, cinnamon.

1787 notemyge, nutmeg; maces, mace.

1789 greces, steps.

1793 y-seyn, seen.

1796 soget, subject.

1802 fenym, venom.

1803 stampe, mash.

1804 tryacle, treacle.

1806 rynde, bark; pershid, pierced.

1807 vestell, vessel.

1808 do, take.

1811 ground, bottom.

1812 cannes, canes.

1814 yre der, iron harm.

1815 haven of, have any of.

1817 quarelles, arrows.

1820 oons, once.

1824 hem lyst, they wish.

1830–31 y-herborwed, sheltered.

1832 quyke, alive; skyle, wisdom; heo, she.

1833 dude, did.

1835 wene, believe.

1836 an, on.

1839 norsheth, raise; strangly, kill; hope, expect.

1840 hy, they.

1841 kyndely, natural.

1842 feneson, venison.

1845 at most name, most famous.

1846 makyd at oon, reconciled.

1846–47 every otheris, each other’s.

1849 resenable, reasonable; eddres, adders.

1851 make noon fors of, do not care for.

1857 prevyteis, genitals; targe, shield.

1860 perlys orient, oriental pearls.

1861 pater-noster of aumbre, amber-beaded rosary; Pater Noster, "Our Father" prayer; Ave Maria, "Hail Mary" prayer.

1862 or, before.

1863 rubye orient, oriental ruby.

1864 chese, choose.

1866 hy, they.

1873 prest, priest.

1880 preye, invite.

1883 haven gret vylonye, are scorned.

1884 ben y-holde, are considered.

1887 myddes, middle.

1888 eyen, eyes.

1890 plat visage, flat face.

1891 lyples, lipless.

1893 membres, genitals.

1899 holgh, hollow.

1901 Occian, Ocean.

1906 poure, poor.

1909 more, larger.

1910 breddes, birds; moche, large.

1911 chepe, trade; vitayles, food.

1912 solempnytees, rituals.

1913 dyghte, make; deynté, fine (delicious); ordeyne, order.

1914 geve hem to mete, offer them for dinner.

1915 woll, wool.

1919 most, largest.

1921 marcheth uppon, borders on.

1928 baboyn, baboons.

1929 covent, convent; relyfe, remnant.

1930 cleket, clapper.

1932 hem, to them; fessel, vessel.

1937 though yit, still.

1939 travayle, work.

1940 thenne, thence; sege, seat.

1944 pegmans, pygmies.

1945 spanne, handspans.

1946 travelen, work.

1952 good2, goods.

1953 marchaundes, merchants.

1961 aboute, i.e., in circumference; sege, seat.

1964 diverse, diverse [kinds].

1965 fast by, close by.

1968 dight, adorned.

1970 panters, panthers; for, because.

1972 unnethe, hardly.

1973 preesen, prize; for as moche hit were goold, as if they were gold.

1974 over, uppermost.

1975 y-bordured, bordered.

1976 greces, steps.

1978 sege, seat; gre, degree.

1982 kynne, good family.

1984 contrefeit, likeness.

1991 yolgh, yellow.

1997 cremans, possibly light garnets; alabans, albandines.

1998 byrrel, beryl; topaces, topazes.

1999 oniches, onyx; geraundes, possibly dark garnets.

2000 as properly, so well.

2001 borde, table.

2006 coppes, cups; pydos, peridots.

2007 deynté, appreciation; greces, steps.

2008 pament, floors.

2009 soudeours, soldiers.

2011 nobleye, worthiness; y-shewed, shown.

2013 y-leved, believed; y-sey, seen.

2014 honeste, temperate.

2019 Noeis, Noah’s; outtake, except.

2023 parte, divide between them.

2025 bycom, descended; paynymes, pagans.

2026 hedles, headless.

2027 hem, themselves.

2029 skyle, reason.

2031 lynages, families (tribes).

2032 lynage, family, (tribe).

2037 stede, horse.

2041 be, been.

2042 fole, fool.

2043 bad, ordered.

2046 chese, chose; to, as.

2049 tho, then.

2050 lyve, believe.

2051 thraldom, servitude.

2053 numbred, counted; mayster, leader.

2059–60 maked no lettyng of, did not refuse.

2065 wende, thought.

2066 fer, far away.

2067 bossh, bush.

2073 fayn of, joyful at.

2078 for, because.

2083 wan, won.

2084 most, largest.

2089 het hym, called themselves.

2092 tylieth, till.

2093 gret seel, imperial seal.

2096 prevy, private.

2102 beryng, birth.

2105 araed, arrayed.

2109 cammaka, a silk-like fabric.

2110 prys, price.

2112 shewed hem, shown themselves.

2116 astrelabers, astrolabes.

2117 orlages, clocks.

2119 seith tyme, see it is time.

2122 loute, bow.

2130 prevyly, privately; maystres, masters.

2133 heste, behest.

2134 tocknynge, significance.

2137 dightteth, gives.

2138 but, except.

2139 wole werry, wants to make war.

2140 wite, know.

2142 bryddes, birds.

2142–43 faucon gentel, falcons of excellent breed.

2143 laurettes, lanners (a type of Mediterranean falcon); sacres, sakers (female lanners); paupenjayes, parrots.

2144 olyfauntz, elephants; fusicions, physicians; loke, study.

2145 tretith, has dealings.

2150 charbocle, carbuncle.

2153 somer, summer.

2156 ostes, hosts.

2159–60 bowe draught, the length of a bowshot.

2162 wole wende, wants to go; with privé mayne, in secret.

2168 aray, array.

2179 dooth of, takes off.

2180 louteth, bows.

2181 priour, prior; prelat, churchmen of superior rank; religious, order.

2183 beneson, blessing.

2187 voyde, empty-handed.

2194 formest mylk of her beestes, first milk from their beasts.

2197 nywe mone, new moon.

2202 shryve hem, confess themselves.

2203 halwed, ritually purified.

2207 bordes, table linens.

2208 doblers, plates.

2214 gentyles, gentlemen.

2215 fleith on, flees in.

2217–18 turnd to her lawe, converted to their religion.

2218 wyte never, do not know.

2220 shet, shoot; also, as.

2221 byheit, promised.

2226 y-helid, covered.

2228 leggen, lay.

2232 astored, provided for.

2235 be hardy, dares.

2238 wole, will.

2243 sheryng, sharp.

2247 camacas, silk-like fabric.

2248 Asye the Depe, Deepest Asia.

2257 habited, inhabited.

2259 flyen, flies.

2260 mucke, manure.

2265 Oxean, Ocean; Maure, the Black Sea.

2270 Port de Feare, Gate of Iron.

2281 Gregyssh, Greek.

2286 playn, flat.

2295 of name, famous.

2307 derknes, darkness.

2309 voys, voices.

2318–19 overclapped, enshrouded.

2319 oste, host.

2322 y-do, done.

2327 playn, flat.

2328 vuryk and rychasse, wealth and riches (?).

2329 flum, river.

2330 Fame, River.

2339 obesshant, obeisant.

2340 beth yende, are beyond.

2343 sher, shear.

2344 lombe, lamb; wolle, wool.

2349 clowes, cloves; notemyges, nutmegs; canel, cinnamon.

2350 besy, hard-pressed.

2353 kynde, kin.

2356 worchyng, the work.

2359 y-loke, locked.

2360 Syth, Since.

2362 stonk, swamp.

2367 Antecrist, Antichrist.

2369 Ebreu, Hebrew; thilke₂, these same [hills].

2370 trowe, believe.

2375 say yow, tell you.

2376 worche, work; that, [so] that.

2377 seyn, see.

2380 grave, dig.

2381 y-dight, constructed.

2384 wolle, wool.

2386 egle, eagle; lyon, lion.

2391 shet, shoot.

2403 chepe, bargaining; for, because of.

2405 adamaundes, adamant (lodestone); yre, iron.

2406 as stockes, like stalks.

2408 vertu, power.

2412 barlich, barley; ryse, rice.

2413 popynjayes, parrots.

2415 communely, usually.

2420 make noon fors of, do not care for.

2425 neyther, nor.

2426 wyse, way.

2430 ire, iron.

2431 nothyng y-sene, not seen.

2432–33 of her owen kynde, by nature.

2433 pertly, clearly.

2434 weyndith, goes.

2438 of pees, at peace.

2439 tree, wood.

2442 noght, nothing.

2446 pomelles, rounded knobs.

2447 charbocles, carbuncles.

2448 sardyn, sardonyx; bordure, border.

2449 yvour, ivory.

2450 mastyk, resin.

2451 pelers, pillars.

2453 greces, steps; sege, seat.

2454 jaspe, jasper.

2458 baume, aromatic balm.

2459 forme, frame; y-boonde, bound.

2463 withoute, not counting.

2465 he, i.e., the Great Khan.

2466 every of ham, each of them.

2472 ful ryal, very royal.

2479 asure, azure; gynne, engine.

2480 orlage, clock.

2481 knave, male.

2483 condite, conduit.

2486 solacy hym, solace himself.

2489 seye, seen.

2494 Fendes, Fiends.

2495 Perlous, Perilous; And, In.

2496 thondres, thunders.

2499 covetyse, greed.

2500 astrangled with, killed by.

2502 devel bodylich, devil incarnate.

2505 sprynclynge, sparkling.

2508–09 clene y-shryve, well confessed.

2513 trist, trust.

2514 y-shryve, confessed; houseled, given communion.

2515 whoder, whether.

2518 say, saw.

2519 we semed, it seemed to us.

2524 gyauntes, giants.

2526 gladloker, more gladly.

2529 sey, saw.

2530 lither, evil.

2534 hit is y-ordeyned therto a man, there is a man specially designated.

2535 gret hire, good pay.

2536 travayle, work.

2538 playne hym, make a complaint.

2539 he, i.e., the gadlybyrien; dever, task; gryvouslich, grievously.

2543 yerd, penis.

2544 or, before.

2545 aventure, danger.

2548 ryghtwys, righteous; trywest, fairest.

2549 conseil, counsel.

2552 defende, forbid.

2555 cocthrylles, crocodiles.

2557 gryntynge, groaning.

2561 gyrsaunt, giraffes.

2562 heyer, taller; courser, charger.

2563 cruper, hindquarters; hert, deer.

2568 hy, they; founes, fawns.

2569 stedes, horses; lonhorauns, rhinoceroses.

2571 sheryng, cutting; olyfaunt, elephant.

2574 lyff, life.

2574–75 of lawe of kynde, according to natural law.

2576 proute, proud.

2578 make noon fors of, care nothing for.

2584 thefes, thieves; morthereres, murderers; comen wymmen, prostitutes.

2587 apayed of her levynge, pleased by their way of life.

2587–88 they leven so honestly in mete and drynke, they eat and drink so moderately.

2589 ylde, old age.

2596 araed, arrayed.

2597 dyght, adorn.

2599 desert, disinherit (take from).

2600 al onlich, only; lere, teach.

2603 sturbled, disturbed.

2606 lyveng, living.

2611 noght worth, worth nothing.

2613 dedelych, mortal.

2616 as hit were a god, and thow hast no terme of thyn lyf, as if you were a god, whose life would never end.

2617 or, before.

2618 by leve, be left.

2622 purpoos, intentions.

2622–23 they take her the same degré as He dide of Jope, they get the same consideration He gave to Job.

2625 meckly, meekly.

2628 godespell, gospel.

2638 tylyeth, till.

2640 pigmans, pygmies.

2643 but, except.

2663 makyde orders, ordained priests.

2678 myne, a mine.

2679 sterres, stars.

2681 pismeres, ants; fynyth, refine.

2683 queyntise, cunning.

2684–85 fro undre of the day to none, from mid-morning to midday.

2686 charge, load.

2687 or, before.

2688 meres, mares; foles, foals.

2689 tome, empty.

2695 than, then.

2697 est, east; myrke, dark.

2708 mone, moon.

2712 mydes, middle; flodes, rivers.

2723 troble, murky.

2726 best, beast; tygrys, tiger.

2727 brennynge, burning.

2731 for, because.

2732 wawes, waves.

2733 asayed, tried.

2734 wery, weariness.

2744 coostynge, lying off the coast.

2745 comynge, traveling.

2746 brede, breadth.

2752 withoute, outside.

2757 tre, wood.

2759 mawmet, idol.

2764 send after, call together.

2766 smyteth of, chops off.

2768 orysons, prayers.

2777 y-worshiped, honored.

2780 his fadir his heed, father’s head.

2781 sherith, carves; yif, gives.

2782 denté, delicacy.

2783 lyfftyme, lifetime.

2786 lyvyng, way of life.

2788 messes, servings.

2789 kytteth, cut.

2792 nobleye, sign of nobility.

2795 gentrise, show of status.

2796 strayt, tightly.

2797 wexe, grow.

2801 hulle, hill; toures, towers.

2802 eyr, air.

2807 clipe, call.

2810 but, except; kyndely witte, common sense.

2816 mamettes, idols.

2817 Our Lady, the Virgin Mary.

2818 wit, understand.

2819 tre, wood.

2820 pentours, paintings; lewed, unlettered.

2832 hyre, hear.

2839 conseyve, conceive.

2845 soath, true.

2846 uppon, written in.

2846–47 mappa mundi, world map.

2849 hureth hit y-rad, hear it read.


 

THE BOOK OF JOHN MANDEVILLE: EXPLANATORY NOTES

As exhaustive notes to the Book are available both in Warner's Egerton edition and in Seymour's recent Defective edition (though without the support of a bibliography), no effort has been made here to research each source comprehensively or to parse each individual instance of note. Rather, these notes seek to provide sufficient supporting material to aid in close reading of the text, to direct readers' attention to significant issues in scholarship on the Book, and to offer suggestions for further reading on areas of potential interest. While many errors of fact and inconsistencies within the text are here noted, no effort has been made to consistently note every instance in which the Book's information is skewed or erroneous.

In addition to the notes, we have supplied a detailed glossary of proper names indexed to the text (see pp. 153-76) as well as an overview of the major sources that underlie the Book as we have it (see the Appendix, pp. 135-42).

Biblical references are to the Douay-Rheims version. References to the "Book" are general, whereas references to particular manuscripts and versions of the Book are so noted.

ABBREVIATIONS: B: The Bodley Version of Mandeville's Travels, ed. Seymour (1963); D: The Defective Version of Mandeville's Travels, ed. Seymour (2002 ); K: The Book of John Mandeville, ed. Kohanski (2002); S: Mandeville's Travels, ed. Seymour (1967); R: London, British Library MS Royal 17 C xxxviii; W: The Buke of John Maundeuill, ed. Warner (1889).

1-9 This preface, written in the third person and seemingly compiled from information found elsewhere in the text (see the Appendix) is not found in other versions of the Book. The real identity of the traveler "Sir John Mandeville," if indeed such a person existed, has been the subject of long-standing debate. (For an overview of the authorship controversy, see K, pp. xxiii-xxviii; Seymour, Sir John Mandeville, pp. 5-24; and Higgins, Writing East, pp. 8-13.) While "Mandeville's" identity as an English knight from St. Albans who traveled through the Holy Land and the Far East in the early to mid-1300s was long accepted as a nucleus of fact, even these basic assumptions are no longer considered valid. Seymour states categorically that "(a) Mandeville's Travels was written on the continent in French, by an unknown hand, c. 1357" and "(b) The author was probably not an Englishman, and the existence of 'Sir John Mandeville' is completely fictitious" (B, p. 176 n147/13). It is now generally supposed that the earliest versions of the Book were in French, rather than English.

Whether the author of the Book ever in fact traveled has also been a longstanding source of debate. From the classic comment that the author probably never traveled "farther than the nearest library," to Giles Milton's recent assertion of the real travel experience of the author based upon a modern excursionin the footsteps of Mandeville, opinions vary widely. What is clear is that much of the Book is based on other written sources, many of which have been traced (see the Appendix for sources for the Book).

Even if one accepts "John Mandeville" as a real person and a world traveler, the dates of travel and of composition of the Book remain problematic. In many of the Insular French texts, the excursion date is given as 1322 and the book is reported as having been written "after 34 years," i.e., in 1356. Most Continental texts, however, claim it was written in 1357. In the English Defective tradition, the date of "Mandeville's" departure ranges from 1300 to 1366 - tending to cluster in the 1320s and 1330s (British Library MS Arundel 140 no. 1's date of 1366 is clearly a scribal error, as the date "1332" is crossed out and "1366" substituted, apparently as a result of confusion over whether the date of departure or composition is being given). As Seymour notes, "Jean le Long's translations, which the author used, were completed in 1351, and the earliest dated manuscript was written in 1371" (B, p. 175n147/5). He concludes, "A study of the scribal tradition suggests a date c. 1357," a sensible estimate.

19 I am kyng of Jewes. John 19:19-21.

23 vertu of thynges is in the myddel. Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics 2.6) and Cicero ("On Duties" 1.25), among others, speak of the virtue of the middle way. In a clever semantic shift, the narrator turns Aristotle's idea that every virtue exists as a mean between vices to his own ends, as proof for Jerusalem's geographical location as the "mean point" of greatest holiness in a world of sin.

It should be noted, however, that in order for Jerusalem to occupy the "middle of the world," the world would have to be flat: an idea firmly contradicted by the narrator later in the text.

48 conquere here ryght heritage. Warner suggests that the narrator's criticism of great lords' interest in "disinheriting their neighbors" rather than taking up the noble cause of crusading in the Holy Land may be a comment upon Edward III's wars with France, and more specifically the Battle of Poitiers, fought in 1356 (W, p. 157n2.14). Crusading zeal was much diminished in the Mandeville-author's time, the last crusade having embarked for the Holy Land in 1270 and ended in failure.

72 The Cotton Version declares here that its text was translated from Latin into French and then from French into English. Most authorities, however, now believe that the Book was originally written in French (see note to lines 1-9).

82-91 Hungary expanded its holdings significantly in the mid-1300s, with the annexation of Bulgaria lasting into the late 1360s. Thus the inclusion of Bulgaria as a Hungarian territory in this passage is sometimes thought significant to the dating of the text. Arpad Steiner's "Date of Composition" is devoted to this brief passage, arguing that it attests to a date of composition between 1365 and 1371. While the Mandeville-author appears to derive his route through Hungary to Constantinople from Albert of Aix's early twelfth-century history of the First Crusade, Hungary's holdings in the passage clearly reflect a much later time period. Slavonia (Savoyze) and Cumania (Comayne) were not annexed until 1180 and 1233, respectively (see W, p. 157n4.2).

98-106 In his Bodley text, Seymour takes this passage as partial proof that the Mandeville-author worked exclusively from sources: "The huge bronze statue of Justinian, erected in 543, originally held in the left hand a gilt orb, the appil of gold, surmounted by a cross. This cross was blown down in 1317 and restored in 1325. The legend recorded here, in an account otherwise derived from William of Boldensele, probably stems from this accident. The confusion of the cross and the orb, said to equal a fifteen-gallon jar in size, proves that the author was not writing from personal observation" (B, p. 150n7/1). In the more recent edition of the Defective Version, however, Seymour accedes to the belief that the orb itself had fallen, thus rendering the source-question open once again (D, p. 138n6/31). The fourteenth-century Byzantine scholar Nicephorus Gregoras reports the absence of the cross from 1317 to 1325. William of Boldensele, the Book's main source for this section, reports the orb with cross in the hand of the statue.

Fazy ("Jehan de Mandeville, " p. 44) reflects that the period in which the cross/orb was missing was just around the time that the Mandeville-author might have been in Constantinople, but by the time his chief source, William of Boldensele, arrived in 1333 it would have been restored. Thus the Mandeville-author's account of its absence may be a firsthand observation, unless culled directly from Gregoras.

98 Seynt Sophie. "Hagia Sopia" is, in the case of the renowned church, properly translated not as "Saint Sophia," but as "Holy Wisdom." The Hagia Sophia is dedicated not to the saint, but to the Holy Wisdom of God.

110-15 The Monastery of Stavrovouni (literally "Cross Mountain") in Cyprus is dedicated to the Holy Cross. According to tradition, it was founded by St. Helena (see Indexed Glossary: "Eline"), who visited the island with the True Cross after finding it in Jerusalem. The Cross vanished during her stay, but for three nights a bright light was seen on the mountaintop. Investigating, Helena and her companions found the Cross floating above the ground: an event that was interpreted as a sign that a monastery should be constructed there. Thus the hill and the monastery both came to be known as "Stavrovouni."

Cypriot tradition states that Helena left a fragment of the Cross in the keeping of the monks at Stavrovouni. By the 1300s it was generally believed, as here, to be a fragment of the cross of Dismas rather than of Christ. See also the explanatory notes to lines 152 and 653-57 .

Warner offers several local variations on the story of the Cross' coming to Stavrovouni as well as an account of the disposition of the sponge, reed, and other holy relics (W, pp. 158-59nn5.5, 5.7). Varying accounts of the movements of the most sacred relics (the sponge and reed, the spear, pieces of the Cross and the crosses of the two thieves, the crown of thorns, etc.) abound, sometimes out of honest confusion but all too often, as the narrator here goes on to lament, because the claim of possessing a holy relic so often translates to tourism, prestige, and wealth.

113 Dismas . . . was honged. See Luke 23:32-43.

116-17 In . . . oliva. "The Cross was made of palm, cedar, cypress, and olive." The idea of the Cross as composed of numerous different woods is probably based on a type from Isaias: "The glory of Libanus shall come to thee, the fir tree, and the box tree, and the pine tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary" (60:13). Warner (W, p. 159n5.10, 6.6) offers a lengthy overview of the tradition and its permutations, noting the Book's apparent debt to the version found in Jacobus of Voragine's Golden Legend (1.278).

Warner notes that the following story "of Seth's visit to Paradise . . . is found in the second part of the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, stopping short, however, at the angel's refusal of the oil of mercy," and that the story exists in numerous versions, the most popular of which has Seth emerging with "grains" to place on his father's tongue, as here. Commonly Seth emerges with three grains, in accordance with the three-wood type of Isaias 60:13 as well as other early accounts of the Cross as being of three, not four, woods: cypress, pine, and cedar. The Book here gives Seth four grains, presumably to accord with the four-wood model found in Jacobus.

152 doughter of a kyng. Helena's father is elsewhere identified as the legendary King Coel of Britain ("Old King Cole"). The story of her discovery of the True Cross is subject to question, but has long been considered historically true by much of the Catholic world. See also the explanatory notes to lines 110-15 and 653-57.

157-61 The King's Chapel here is Sainte-Chapelle, "founded by St. Louis in 1246 as a reliquary for the holy relics redeemed by him from the Venetian merchants (not the Jews) to whom Baldwin II had pawned them" (D, p. 139n9/17). That the Venetian pawnbrokers should be transformed by the text into Jews is unsurprising, not only because the Jews were so strongly associated with money-lending throughout the Middle Ages, but also because the Book shows a marked tendency to represent the Jews as dangerous to and subversive of Christianity. Their depiction here as infidel purveyors of the holy relics of Christendom is well in keeping with this motif.

165 The risshes of the see described here are more commonly referred to in the texts as "jonques of the see, " prompting Seymour's identification of them with juncus glaucus, the bog-rush (D, p. 139n9/21). Seymour goes on to observe, rightly, that "the exhibits at Sainte-Chapelle were medieval forgeries" and that "The Crown of Thorns reported in the gospels is now believed to have been made of the spines of the date palm (phoenix dactylifera) . . . the only suitable flora then available in Jerusalem."

The Book's story of the four successive crownings of Christ (with albespina, barberry, briar rose, and finally the "jonques of the see") may reflect a medieval effort to encompass conflicting theories about the Crown of Thorns as well as to allow for a wider range of the thorn-relics on display to be regarded as genuine, much as stories of the separation and distribution of the True Cross to protect it from the infidel helped validate the claims of the many places claiming to own a segment of it.

166-67 Y have a poynt therof. The narrator's claim to possess a thorn from Christ's crown is an example of his linking his own life to the narrative, a truth-claim model found often in the course of the Book.

175-76 And therfor hath the albespyne many vertues. Warner notes that the protective properties of the albespina are referenced as far back as Ovid and thus long predate the coming of Christ (W, p. 160n6.26).

188 Hayl, kyng of Jewes. Matthew 27:29; Mark 15:18; John 19:13.

196 [Y]drions probably stems from Greek anydros (anhydrous; free of water vapor). Both Pliny and Isidore of Seville describe"enhydros" as a kind of agate that expels water.

210-13 The report of reverence for Aristotle's tomb, including the detail that proximity to the tomb was believed to provide a person with insight into the truth of matters, is also noted in the widely circulated tradition of sentential materials rooted in the Arabic Mokhtâr el-Hikam, translated into Spanish as Bocados de Oro, which was in turn translated into Latin as Liber Philosophorum Moralium Antiquorum, the source for Guillaume de Tignonville's French translation, Dits Moraulx. It appears in Middle English, for example, in Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers, as part of the background for Aristotle (ed. Sutton, 13.56-70 [pp. 65-66]).

216-19 In most versions of the story the peak of Athos is said to cast the marketplace of Myrina on the isle of Lemnos into shadow. Pliny the Elder reports the phenomenon in his Natural History (Book 4, chapter 2) as does Solinus, who goes on to relate that Athos towers above the precipitation line and that as a result the ash at its peak never washes away (chapter 20).

223 emperouris paleis. Neither the palace of Boukoleon nor the Hippodrome adjoining it is noted by the Book's main source of information about Constantinople, William of Boldensele. Such details, not traceable to available sources, have convinced some scholars of the authenticity of at least part of the Book as the firsthand account of a traveler. Those supporting the idea of the Mandeville-author as a traveler to at least some degree notably include Bennett (Rediscovery of Sir John Mandeville) and Moseley (Travels). For an overview of arguments pro and con, see Kohanski, "Uncharted Territory, " pp. 64-68.

228-34 The story of the engraving found in the grave of the wise man, asserting his proto-Christian faith, was commonly attached to the mythic figure Hermes Trismegistos. Here, Hermes is conflated with Hermogenes of Tarsus, the Greek rhetorician of the late second century AD. The Book's direct source for the story is unclear, but Oliverus Scholasticus refers to "certain heathen gentiles" who "had the Holy Sprit on their lips, but not in their heart, and prophesied plainly about Christ" (Capture of Damietta, p. 50), and Roger Bacon notes that Trismegistos' views on the creative nature of God accord with those of St. John the Evangelist despite the fact that the former "lived near the time of Moses and Joshua" (Moral Philosophy, pt. 1, p. 646). Other analogues are found in Jacobus of Voragine's Golden Legend (2:376) and elsewhere.

238-39 the Pope John the Twelfthe sende lettres. In other manuscripts of the Book, these letters are generally attributed to Pope John XXII, who held the office from 1316 to 1334. The reference here to "John the Twelfthe," who was pope from 955 to 964, probably results from an error in transcribing the Roman numeral. The papal power "to bind and to assoil" is a reference to the Roman Catholic belief that Christ gave power to the popes as successors to St. Peter, the first pope, both to damn and to forgive.

248 greet covetise. John XXII was roundly criticized after his death for his efforts to assert dominion over the Greek Church. Although the emperor Andronicus III did firmly reject the pope's assumption of power, this return message with its reference to John's"great covetousness" was a widely circulated fake.

249-74 Many of the practices attributed to the Greek Church in this passage are reversed or unfounded. For example, the reference to the Greeks as "anointing no sick man before his death" suggests that the Greeks practice the sacrament of unction only on the deathbed. In fact, however, Greek practice diverged from Roman in that the Greeks offered frequent unction for the sick, and the Romans only "extreme" (deathbed) unction. The accusation that the Greek Church sanctions fornication is, of course, absurd, and hardly accords with the harsh moralism of the following statement: that if one marries more than once, one's children are bastards. The prohibition of second marriages held only for clergy. Lay people were, however, discouraged from marrying more than three times (a prohibition the Wife of Bath would doubtless have challenged).

250 Maundé. The Maunde was the ceremony of washing the feet of the poor on Holy Thursday, also known as Maundy Thursday (Dies Mandati). The sacrament of sour or wheaten bread is in token of the church's ministry to the poor, in accordance with Christ's new mandate to "love one another" (see John 13:34). That the Greek Church considered the bread consecrated on Maundy Thursday especially holy, as the passage goes on to suggest, was considered an error of their belief by the Roman Church.

284 mastik. Resinous gum which has been produced on the Greek island of Scios for centuries. The Genoese in the Middle Ages held a profitable monopoly on the island's mastic, which was marketed as a medicine. It was (and is) also chewed recreationally, like chewing gum, especially in the Middle East. The book later reports tables and stairs made of "mastyk" at lines 2450 and 2454.

292-93 Turkes haldeth Turkey. By the time the Book was written, the Hospitallers had in fact retaken parts of Asia Minor, notably the city of Smyrna (Izmir) which they held from 1344 to 1402. The Mandeville-author follows Boldensele, whose account was written in 1336, before the capture of Smyrna.

293-98 The story of St. John having commissioned his own tomb and lain down in it while still alive, as well as the report that when opened the tomb was found to contain only manna (lines 290-91), dates back as far as the sixth century, where it is found in pseudo-Abdias' Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. The Book probably takes the story from Jacobus of Voragine's Golden Legend. In any case, the idea that nothing but manna is to be found in the tomb clearly conflicts with the idea that St. John remains in his tomb alive, his stirrings causing the earth above him to shift.

301 iles of Grece. The "isle of Greece," i.e., Crete, was never given to the Genoese ("Jonays," line 302). Rather, after the fall of Constantinople to the Latins in 1204, it was sold to the Venetians. The Book has a tendency to confound the Venetians with others; see, for example, lines 157-61 (and the corresponding explanatory note), where they are misidentified as Jews.

302 Both Cofos and Lango appear to refer to the Greek isle of Cos, with which the story of Hippocrates' daughter is generally associated. Warner suggests that the story may owe a debt to the role of the serpent in the cult of Asculepius, prominent on the island (W, p. 163n12.16), or to Hippocrates' son Draco. Although most of the surrounding material derives from William of Boldensele, the Book's source for this story - which does not appear in Boldensele, but survives elsewhere in many forms - is unknown. Common speculation is that it was transmitted through a crusader history, as were many such tales.

344 Seynt Poule in his pistle. The text makes a leap here, common in the Middle Ages, from "Collos," the archaic name for Rhodes, to St. Paul's letter to the Colossians. According to Catholic tradition, however, the Colossians were the people of Colossae, east of Ephesus in Asia Minor, not the people of Rhodes. The Hospitallers held the island of Rhodes from 1309 to 1523, when it was captured by the Turks.

346-48 It is not entirely clear whether the Book refers here to the grapes themselves, on the vine, or to the wine. Cypriot wine (later known as "Commanderia") was highly valued in the Middle Ages, and there are numerous reports of its changing color over time, although accounts disagree as to whether it becomes darker or lighter with age.

350-58 Believed to stem ultimately from the classical story of the beheaded Gorgon, this story was apparently current in the Middle East during the time of the Crusades. Variants are recorded by Walter Map, among others. Warner (W, p. 164-65n14.6) offers several variations of the story.

368 castel of Amors. According to tradition, the "castle of Love" is so called because it occupies the site of a former temple of Eros. The site is famous, too, as the fourth-century hermitage of St. Hilarion. Although Hilarion was buried at the site, his chief biographer, St. Jerome, reports that his body was later removed to his birthplace in Palestine.

377-81 Tyre (Sûr), one of the key ports of the Holy Land, was under Christian control from 1124 to 1291. It was recaptured in 1291 by the Saracens and subsequently razed.

383 bossh many. The text here seems to be unique in noting that bossh may be found on the shoreline. Other manuscripts (e.g., D, p. 18; K, p. 12; S, p. 20) are unanimous in reading instead "rubies." The sense for bossh, according to the OED, could be either"forests" or "merchant ships," with the latter fitting especially well in the present context of a port haven where supplies can be procured.

385 well of gardeyns. The "Fons Hortorum" is the Fountainhead or Ras el 'Ain, which supplied ancient Tyre with water by means of a series of cisterns and a now-ruined aqueduct. It is here associated with the well of the Canticle of Canticles 4:15.

387-88I-blessid be . . . souke. Luke 11:27.

394-95 she fundide the cité of Cartage. Our manuscript here reads "he fundide" (see textual note to line 394), which would seem to suggest Aeneas as the founder of Carthage. "He" here is likely a scribal misreading of "heo" (she), the term that prevails in the Defective Version generally. The case for the female pronoun is strengthened by the fact that Dido is generally considered the founder of Carthage (compare Aeneid 1.480-522).

395-96 The narrator here conflates Agenor, who was Dido's father and the king of Tyre, with Achilles, the Greek hero of the Trojan War.

400-01 The apocryphal ascription of Jaffa's founding to Noah's son Japhet is widespread, hinging on a false etymology derived from the similarity of names. Here the story is drawn from William of Boldensele, the Book's chief source on the Holy Land. Lines 2018-27 relate the story of the world being divided among the three sons of Noah after the flood, with Shem taking Africa, Ham Asia, and Japhet Europe. The ports of the Middle East may well have been considered part of Europe by crusade-minded Europeans.

Ham and Shem are here transposed, as was common in the Middle Ages. For discussion of Ham's reported role as ruler of Asia, see the explanatory note to lines 2018-48.

406-07 The mile in the Middle Ages was not a standardized measure, different areas having standard miles of varying lengths. The Book generally takes "miles of Lumbardy" as its measure of distance, but distance measures in the book are so notoriously skewed that they are of little practical value. Seymour references a passage in Warner's Insular Version (58.33) that equates Lumbard miles with "the miles of our country," i.e., England (D, p. 142n19/21); he goes on to equate these miles with the continental league, or half of a "great league." The "great league" seemingly refers to the "leagues" or "great miles" of France and Germany, which were equal to two English miles (see W, p. 162n11.13).

423 The Gravely See, discussed at greater length at lines 2423-27, was said to be a great sea of sand, complete with waves and fish, in the land of Prester John. The reference is almost certainly to one of the great eastern deserts, but owing to the uncertain geography of the Book nearly any desert from Turkmenistan's Karakum to Mongolia's Gobi may underlie the reference. Seymour (D, p. 166n115/16) identifies it with the Takla Makan desert, on the old Silk Road through the Persian empire.

The Foss of Memnon (line 415), described here as a swolwyng ("gulf") of that sea, had long been famous for its vitreous nature. The idea that any metal put into the Foss would become glass is, however, obviously an exaggeration.

443 thre children. Chapter 1 of the Book of Daniel repeatedly refers to Daniel and his three companions as "children, "most notably as "children of Israel" (1:3) and "children in whom there was no blemish" (1:4). But in the account of the fiery furnace, it is made clear that they are grown men, whom Nebuchadnezzar has "set over the works of the province of Babylon" (3:12), and children only in the symbolic sense, as "children of God." The popular belief that they were small children may stem in part from the medieval Europeans' prediliction for stories of infant piety, such as the tale told by Chaucer's Prioress.

446 This strong castel is Saladin's fortress of Al Kalah, erected in 1166.

457-58 And many . . . Mount Moyses. The apparent discontinuity of the text here is the result of the "Egypt Gap," a lengthy lacuna in the Book's description of Egypt that is shared by most manuscripts in English, causing them to be dubbed "Defective." Versions that do contain the Egypt material usually include the following topics: how the sultans of Babylon came to power; the powers and prerogatives of the sultans (including their armies, their many wives, and their concubines); a contrast between the sultan's Babylon (Cairo) and Babylon the Great on the Euphrates River, where the Tower of Babylon stood; an account of the environs of Cairo and the yearly flooding of the Nile; the geography and people of Egypt; the story of the Temple of the Phoenix in Heliopolis, with a discussion of the phoenix as a symbol of Christ; the mice, slave markets, and ingenious incubators of Egypt; crops such as bananas, melons, figs, and balm, and their Christian associations; the Saracen practice of selling false balm to unsuspecting pilgrims; the pyramids as "Joseph's granaries"; the Egyptian alphabet; pilgrimage routes from Western Europe to Cairo; the way from Cairo to Mount Sinai; the church, miracles, and relics of St. Katherine on Mount Sinai; and the holy places associated with Moses on Mount Sinai.

The two texts in English that preserve the Egypt material are the Cotton and Egerton manuscripts. Modern editions that include the Egypt material are Moseley's Penguin translation of the Egerton Version (Travels) and Seymour's two Oxford editions of the Cotton Version (Mandeville's Travels, 1967 in Middle English; 1968 in Modern English).

Our manuscript, Royal 17C, is notable for the smooth transition it makes over the Egypt Gap. Whereas most Defective manuscripts join the edges of the gap in an unclear sentence beginning in Egypt and ending at the Mount of St. Katherine, Royal 17C bridges the gap less awkwardly, beginning a new sentence to make the transition to the Mount of St. Katherine. The non sequitur persists, of course, but in a far less obvious form (see K, pp. xl-xli).

503 Cariatharba. Kirjath arba in fact means "City of the Four," a reference to the Talmudic assertion that four of the Patriarchs, including Adam, are buried there. The text's assertion at lines 496-97 that David, Abraham, and Jacob are buried there with their wives Eve, Sara, and Rebecca is clearly garbled. Commonly those who accompany Adam are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their wives Eve, Sara, Rebecca, and Rachel. Royal 17C's substitution of David for Adam may simply be an error, or may reflect the fairly common medieval belief that Adam was not, in fact, buried in Hebron, despite the assertion of Joshua 14:15: "The name of Hebron before was called Cariath-Arbe: Adam the greatest among the Enacims was laid there."

The name Cariatharba properly refers to Hebron itself, although the text here uses it interchangeably with the "Spelunca Duplex," the Double Cave in which the sepulchers of the Patriarchs are said to lie. The tomb was off-limits to both Christians and Jews, but several reports from travelers of the period suggest that Jews could sometimes buy access, while Christians were utterly prohibited.

505 as Holy Writ sayth: Tres vidit et unum adoravit. The Latin, contrary to the implication of the text, is not biblical but liturgical, being the antiphon for vespers on Quinquagesima Sunday. The basis for the line is, however, found in Genesis 18:2-3.

511-13 Warner notes: "according to rabbinical authority he sinned in the tenth hour after creation and was expelled from Paradise in the twelfth. So too the curious thirteenth century catechism of science known as Sydrac and Boctus (quoting the later English Metrical Version):

And in Paradyse they wore
Seuen howers and no more.
The thyrde hower after his makyng
Gaue Adam name to all thyng:
The syxth hower ete his wyfe
The appull that made all the stryfe:
The seuenth hower Adam dyd of yt ete,
And was chasyd and streyth out bete.
(The History of Kyng Boccus and Sydracke . . . translatyd by Hugo of Caumpeden out of Frenche into Englysche, about 1510).

A Mahometan legend, on the contrary, declares that he lived no less than five hundred years in Paradise before tasting the forbidden fruit" (W, pp. 175-76n34.21). (See Book 1, lines 2251-58 of the Lansdowne manuscript in Burton's edition of Sidrak and Bokkus.)

517 cambil. Many travelers, including Burchard of Mt. Sion and Odoric of Pordenone, speak of a kind of red earth that is dug and eaten in the area. The name cambil is found in none of the Book's usual sources, however, and seems to link the Book's substance to the native kinbil, a reddish powder that derives from a shrub found in Arabia and the East. It has a long history in Arabic medicine, generally as a treatment for skin conditions. The Book's account is unusual both in naming it and in refraining from identifying it as dirt, as most other travelers of the period do.

526-33 Accounts of prophecies surrounding the "Dry Tree" were widespread in the Middle Ages, as were accounts of its healing powers. As Seymour notes, "The prophecy alluded to derives ultimately from the Book of Sirach, and for a time was thought to relate to the Emperor Frederic II (d. 1230). Although the miraculous properties of the Dry Tree are well attested (e.g. in Vincent de Beau-vais), it is only in Mandeville's Travels that they include a preservative against the fallynge euyl, i.e. epilepsy; elsewhere this preservative refers to the evils attendant on falling off a horse!" (B, p. 158n47/29). Warner concludes that this error proves the use of a written source, but such a conclusion is not inescapable, based upon the evidence. For more on the Dry Tree, see W, p. 176n35.5.

538 Lo, we have herd hym in Effrata. Vulgate Psalm 131:6.

566-69 Scrapings from the porous, white-rock floor of the "Grotto of the Milk" are still used medicinally by women, especially for pregnancy and women's ailments.

575-76 And his wyckednesse . . . into his owen heed. Compare 1 Kings 25:39 and 3 Kings 2:44.

587 she hadde y-bore 12 children. Rachel had only two children according to the Bible, Jacob's thirteen children being born of four women: his wives Rachel and Leah, along with their respective slave girls, Bilhah and Zilpah. The number twelve here seems to be the result of the fact that Joseph had twelve male offspring among the thirteen (see Genesis 35:22-26).

590 condiht. The conduit by which water reaches Jerusalem is said to have been built by Pontius Pilate.

602-04 a cherche of Mercaritot . . . when he deyde. This rather confusing passage is attempting to convey that Saint Karitot (the prefix mer meaning "saint") was the abbot of a monastery to the south of Jerusalem. The idea of a painting depicting the sorrow of the monks at Mercaritot's death stems from a misreading of Peter Comestor's Historia Scholastica (PL x.x, ch. 178), which says that the compaginati (skeletons) of the monks can still be seen, not the compincti (paintings). As the painting never existed and the monastery is reported by Ludolph von Suchem to have been in ruins in the early 1300s, it is clear that the Mandeville-author had not traveled to this particular destination.

609 40. The manuscript leaves blank the space where the number should be in this sentence. The Defective manuscripts tend to read "40" whereas other versions tend toward "140." Counting from the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187, 140 is not far off. The reading of "40" in the Defective texts may be justified, however, if one counts from the fall of Acre in 1291. Thus "40" has been preferred here.

623-25 The miracle of the lamp going out on Good Friday and relighting itself on Easter is mentioned by Bernard the Monk, circa 865, and by numerous historians thereafter. Celebration of the miracle continues in Easter week to the present day.

630 Adamis hed. Other medieval travelers including the pseudo-Odoric, whose Liber de Terra Sancta provided occasional source material for the first part of the Book, report having seen the skull of Adam on display in Jerusalem, a detail not found in any version of the Book. Contemporary accounts suggest that the skull was a common pilgrimage stop throughout the 1300s; the Book's failure to mention it is therefore somewhat puzzling.

631 Adam. Other manuscripts say Abraham.

632-33 lith Godfray the Boleyn, and Baudewyn. The tombs of the two prime crusader figures, Godfrey and Baldwin, remained in place, although in great disarray, until they were destroyed by the Greeks in 1808.

636-37 God, our kyng . . . myd of the erthe. Vulgate Psalm 73:12.

640-41 That thou seist is ground . . . of this feith. Possibly a reference to Vulgate Psalm 117:22, in which exegetes understood Christ as being described as "The stone which the builders rejected," who has now become "the head of the corner," i.e., the cornerstone of the faith.

644 40 yer was Y neyghbore to this generacion. Vulgate Psalm 94:10.

645-51 Seymour calls this equation "absurd" (D, p. 145n30/2) but it may not be wholly so. The Roman ten-month calendar in fact contained only 304 days, split into ten months of thirty or thirty-one days each, with the remainder of the year taken up by a lengthy gap over the winter before the new year began in spring. Thus while only 304 days of the year were enumerated by the calendar, the year was not only 304 days long. The months of January and February were later introduced to bring the days of winter into the fold.

A calendar that relied on a strict 304 day annual cycle would, of course, be spectacularly inaccurate, but if the medieval writer knew only that the old Roman calendar had enumerated 304 days per year, and did not take the gap into account, the calculation would be quite tidy. If Christ was, as is commonly argued, 33 years and 3 months old at the time of His death (our text says 32 years and 3 months) according to the Julian year of 365 days, He would indeed have been 40 years old in years of 304 days. The math at least is sound, if not the science.

653-57 Tradition states that Helena traveled from Constantinople to Jerusalem to seek the True Cross and found all three crosses together c. 326 AD. Although Helena is credited here with the "assaying" of the crosses - touching each to a dying woman and recognizing the True Cross in the one that restores her to health - that credit is more generally given to St. Makarios, bishop of Jerusalem. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was, according to Church tradition, built by Helena to house the Cross. (This tradition obviously conflicts with that of the Cross' transport to Stavrovouni; see the explanatory note to lines 110-15.)

Helena is also said to have left a trail of servants on the mountaintops between Constantinople and Jerusalem, relaying the news of her success instantly by a chain of signal fires, a plan reminiscent of Clytaemnestra's in the Oresteia. This story of the fire on the mountains may also be connected with the legend of Stavrovouni.

660 the emperour of Constantynople is clearly an error for "the emperor Constantine."

677-79 Woman, byhold thy sone . . . . byhold thy moder. John 19:26-27.

689 Gilden Gate that may noght be opned. According to tradition, the southeastern gate into the city of Jerusalem was opened only twice a year during the Christian occupation of the Holy Land: on Palm Sunday, in remembrance of Christ's entry into the city, and on the feast day of the Exaltation of the Cross ("Holy Cross Day").

695 Nostre Dame de Vatyns. The Church of St. Mary, Latin, was the first church in Jerusalem to follow the Latin rite. A group of merchants from Amalfi, granted the site by the Caliph in the early eleventh century, built a monastery to help house pilgrims. The Hospital of St. John, from which the Order of Hospitallers sprung, was an offshoot of that monastery. St. Mary Le Grande, built in the early twelfth century, was an abbey of nuns to help house female pilgrims, who were often unwelcome in monastic lodgings.

697 ff. For an exhaustive account of the legends, source material, and history surrounding the Templum Domini, see W, pp. 180 ff.

702-03 Y hadde letters . . . synet. The Mandeville-author seems desirous of impressing the reader with the special favor he receives from the Sultan in the form of the seal - superior to the mere signet - which allows him free passage in the Holy Land. William of Boldensele speaks of having a letter from the Sultan, but it is not sufficient to gain him entry to the temple. That such entry may not have been so very restricted, however, is suggested by Symon Simeonis (possibly the more direct source of this passage), who describes in some detail his acquisition of the Sultan's special sign which allows him and a bevy of companions "to proceed without tribute to the Sepulchre of the Lord, and to visit all the oratories and other holy places without payment of any tax" (Itinerarium, p. 97). Like Sir John, Symon describes the deep veneration done to the seal everywhere he takes it, but he also notes that the common method of gaining such favors is "to anoint the hands of [the Sultan's dragomen] generously with the oil of florins and to offer them very handsome gifts" (Itinerarium, p. 99). Thus the seal is less a sign of extravagant favor than the result of extravagant bureaucratic payoffs.

709-10 Charlemagne's fictional expedition to the Holy Land forms part of the Charlemagne legend. Several commentators, however, recount the actual presence of the ostensible foreskin of Christ as a holy relic in medieval France. Seymour (D, p. 145n32/31) cites Peter Comestor, William of Tripoli, and Vincent of Beauvais as sources for the historical existence of the relic. At one point, at least six French churches claimed to possess it.

717 solde of hem. Emperor Titus took Jerusalem in 70 AD. St. Ambrose relates the story of his selling Jewish prisoners, a detail found in the many popular accounts of Jerusalem's destruction. The selling of the Jews is a key structural point, for instance, of the Middle English Siege of Jerusalem, ed. Livingston, lines 1319-20 (see also pp. 35-36).

719-26 As other versions of the Book make clear, it is Julian ("the Apostate") who had previously been Christian but had forsaken his faith, not the Jews in the story. Similarly, it is Hadrian rather than the Jews who, though not a Christian, "loved Christian men more than any other men, save men of his own faith." The earthquake that destroyed the Temple is a matter of historical record.

743-44 I saw water comyng out of the Temple. Ezechiel 47:1.

758 byfore. Other versions make explicit that these were part of the Jewish worship before Christ.

761 Forsothe . . . y wist hit noght. Genesis 28:16.

765 He. Other versions specify that this is Christ.

772 when he dyde sle Urye. The story of David's murder of Uriah is told in 2 Kings 11-12.

779 Templers. The Knights Templar were founded in 1119.

785 probatica piscina. The pool of Bethesda, in John 5:2.

789-90 Take thy bed and go. Matthew 9:2.

825 Pees to yow. John 20:19, 21, 26.

827 My Lord, my God. John 20:28.

841 I have synwed, disseyved ryghtfull blood. Matthew 27:4

860 Fader, if hit may be, do let this Passion go fro me. Luke 22:42.

866 yit semeth ther . . . in the stoon. While Boldensele offers the story of the left footprint, a matching right footprint was kept as a holy relic at Westminster Abbey for centuries. Seymour takes the Mandeville-author's failure to note the existence of this English relic, which was well-known in his time, as further evidence that the Book was not originally English in composition (D, p. 146n40/9).

870-71 Blessed be tho . . . kyngdome of Hevene. Matthew 5:3.

875-76 Saint Julian is the patron saint of hospitality.

892-93 He that taketh the prophete . . . he shal take mede of a prophete. Matthew 10:41.

897 Say that thes stones ben maked bred. Luke 4:3.

901 Jhesu, David sone, have mercy on me. Matthew 9:27.

905-09 This passage is clearly based in the high salinity of the Dead Sea, which causes things to float with near-miraculous ease. This bit of information becomes garbled in a variety of ways in transmission however. The most accurate sense of the passage is perhaps preserved by the Cotton and Egerton texts, which tell us that, while the Dead Sea supports no indigenous life, it also will receive no living thing into it: when criminals are thrown in to drown, they simply float. Egerton goes on to tell us, however, that dead things (such as ships) cannot enter it without sinking at once (Travels, ed. Moseley, p. 89). Cotton mirrors our text here and asserts, following Peter Comestor, that iron floats on the surface, and feathers sink. (S, p. 77). In both cases the sea's special quality is given a magical cast.

In the Pynson text, the essential detail that men do not in fact sink and drown in the Dead Sea has been lost. The passage instead reports:"no man nor beast that has life that is therein may live, and that has been proved many times for they cast therein men that are deemed to death" (K, p. 29; translation ours).

Our text's simple assertion that "no kind of beast may live therein, and that has been assayed many times," is of uncertain meaning: does it suggest only the absence of indigenous life, or the idea also that the water kills all living things that enter it?

That the emperor Vespasian did throw criminals into the Dead Sea to test its powers of flotation is attested by Josephus in De Bello Judaico, from which this account of the Dead Sea is largely derived, probably through an intermediate source.

910-12 Due to an apparent eyeskip, the middle of the anecdote of the apples of Sodom has here been omitted. The Pynson text's account is typical: "And there grow trees of fair color that bear fruit and seem ripe, but when a man breaks them or cuts into them he finds nothing in them but coals of ashes, in tokening that through vengeance of God these cities were burnt with fire of hell" (K, p. 29; our translation). Warner identifies the fruit with the Colocynth (W, p. 186n50.4).

941-42 Her is My Sone . . . herith Hym. Matthew 3:17.

978 Byhold the Lombe of God. John 1:29.

1001-02 Now shal ye have the figures . . . What follows in the manuscript (on fol. 27r) are two lines of supposed Hebrew letter forms intended to correspond with the letter names provided in lines 1000-01, themselves associated with the Latin alphabet (see textual note to these lines).

This manuscript of the Book preserves only two alphabets: the Hebrew here and the Saracen at lines 1373-74. Among the many variants of the Book, however, as many as nine different alphabets can be found, most of them garbled and corrupted to varying degrees, if not entirely fanciful. Letts, in his useful overview of the alphabets (Sir John Mandeville, pp. 151-60), delineates them thus:

Greek: presents no problems
Egyptian: based on Coptic
Hebrew: genuine but corrupt, except in [MS] Paris 4515
Saracen: based on Runic
Persian & Chaldean: doublets based on Nestorian
Tartar-Russ: a"ghost," manufactured from Saracen and Cathayan
Cathayan & Pentexoire: doublets. No source has been discovered, probably invented. (p. 160)

Moseley follows Letts in pointing out both that the author borrowed the alphabets from the best sources available and that he incorporated them as a form of truth-claim, an "additional means of convincing his readers of the seriousness of his material" (Travels, p. 191), in conscious imitation of the style of other contemporary travel writers. Moseley's further note, however, that "unlike us, [his original readers] would have had only a slight chance of checking them," suggests a somewhat nefarious intent to trick (Travels, p. 191), whereas Letts credits the author with more benevolent aims: a desire to "be of use to travellers" and to "increase the atmosphere of wonder and mystery which surrounds the whole book" (p. 152).

1009-10 Of Babyloyn shal a colver come out . . . worlde. Although the source of this quotation is unknown, the Latin "columba" (dove) is generally taken to be an error for "coluber" (serpent), the reading that appears in many other versions of the Book. Seymour speculates that "the prophecy . . . is perhaps based on Genesis 49:17 and Comestor's gloss ([PL 198] col. 1454) on Daniel 6" (D, p. 147n46/7).

1012-13 Wo be to thee Corysaym . . . Bethsayda. Matthew 11:21-23, Luke 10:13-15. "Woe be to thee Capharnaum" is inadvertently left out of the translation in the Royal 17C manuscript.

1021 Hayl be thow . . . God is with thee. Luke 1:28.

1032-34 Jhesu autem transiens . . . et cetera. Luke 4:30: "But he [Jesus], passing through the midst of them, went his way." The fuller text of the last two quotations stems from Exodus 15:16 and is given in some other versions. It translates: "Let fear and dread fall on them in the greatness of thy arm: let them become unmoveable as a stone, until thy people, O Lord, pass by: until this thy people pass by, which thou hast possessed."

1038-42 Mount Tabor has been accounted the place of Christ's Transfiguration since at least the fourth century (though Mount Hermon has also vied for the honor). By the late sixth century three churches had been built on Mount Tabor, one for each tabernacle ordained by Christ.

1041-42 Hit is good to be her, make we 3 tabernacles. Matthew 17:4.

1055-56 Thou of litel feith, whi hast thou doute? Matthew 14:31.

1057-59 The location of Christ's "table" in this passage is more usually associated with the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Tradition attaches Christ's feeding of the five thousand faithful to a plateau near Mt. Tiberias.

1059 And ther they knew Hym in brekyng of breed. Luke 24:35.

1067 they ben called Jacobynes . . . converted hem. The Jacobites were actually named for the sixth-century Byzantine monk Jacobus Baradeus, whom they followed. As this passage relates, the Jacobites rejected the practice of auricular confession. The Georgians (lines 1093-96) were followers of St. George, as here reported. The "belted Christians" (line 1097) are sometimes identified with the Coptic sect. Nestorianism (Nideus, line 1098) was, of course, the most widespread form of Christianity in Asia and the Middle East. Heng notes that the representation of these variant forms of Christianity is "Remarkable. . . . Rather than vilify and excoriate what would be classified in Europe as deviatory heresies by the norms of late-medieval Latin Christianity, the Travels offers variation from the Latin Christian norm as a potential source of pleasure, when the careful location of contrast and distinction, in dogma and practice, is managed" (Empire of Magic, p. 252). In this way the deviant forms of Christianity make up a part of the Book's "exotica" (Empire of Magic, p. 245).

1070-76 Lord, y-shryve me to Thee . . . herte. Compare Vulgate Psalm 110:1. My trespas Y have maked knowen to Thee. Vulgate Psalm 31:5. Thou art my God . . . to Thee. Compare Vulgate Psalm 117:28. Forwhy a mannes thoght . . . to Thee. Compare Vulgate Psalm 93:11. Most of these passages do not in fact include any direct reference to confession, and so they do not function well as explication for the Jacobites' position against shriving oneself to a priest.

1118 an ymage of Our Lady. Warner quotes Oliphant: "The picture is supposed to have been painted by St. Luke, and it is popularly believed by those who reverence it to consist half of stone and half of flesh; but nobody cares to verify this statement, as to look upon her image-portrait is said to produce instantaneous death" (W, p. 191n61.5).

1160 he shall go . . . Synople. Seymour calls the inclusion of Pulverall and Synople on the route to Jerusalem "nonsense" (D, p. 149 n52/27), and indeed their location on the Black Sea does place them out of the common way for travelers from Europe to Palestine. Their inclusion here stems from Albert of Aix, the Book's chief source in this section, who mentions them as fallback positions for Christian soldiers driven back by the Saracens in the First Crusade.

1173 Reed See. This is apparently an error for "Greet See," a term often used for the Mediterranean (as here) as well as for the Black Sea and the Ocean. See Indexed Glossary: "Greet See."

1216 skleys. In other versions skleys clearly refers to sleds, not food.

1219 Kerra, Kerra! Seymour suggests Persian khar ("trouble") in preference to the more obvious reading of Arabic karrah ("Attack!") (D, p. 150n55/27).

1230 Mesap and Arne stem from Arabic mashaf ("book") and horme ("holy").

1248-53 The story of Tabina (more commonly"Takyna") apparently stems from a misunderstanding of the Arabic word taki in the Koran's description of the Annunciation. Warner attributes the error in the Book to William of Tripoli, who "renders Arab. Taki (God-fearing) by 'Si tu es Taquius,' adding as a 'glosa Saracenorum,' the explanation that this imaginary being was an enchanter, etc. The Englishman Rob. Redinensis, who translated the Korán into Latin for Peter, Abbott of Cluny, in 1143, was better informed" (W, p. 192n66.xv) and avoided the error.

1256 Have no drede, Marie. Compare Luke 1:30, where the angel Gabriel says this to Mary at the Annunciation.

1263 Missus est angelus Gabriel. Luke 1:26: "The angel Gabriel was sent."

1263-65 fasteth . . . wyves. A reference to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

1267-68 And they seith . . . on the Cros. The sense of this passage is that the Saracens believe the Jews lie in claiming to have crucified Christ. Chapter 15 of both the Cotton and Egerton Versions goes on to detail the supposed Saracen belief that Jesus was never crucified, but rather was assumed directly into Heaven, leaving Judas Iscariot to be crucified in his stead. Thus, they say, the righteousness of God is upheld, which would be marred if He allowed the innocent to be punished.

The following passage, with its certainty of the Saracens' willingness to convert to the true faith, is on a "wishful-thinking" model common in medieval European engagements of the Islamic world.

1290-91 The letter sleeth and the gost maketh quyke. 2 Corinthians 3:6.

1300-18 This passage, commonly referred to as the"Sultan's speech," may be modeled on a passage in Caesarius of Heisterbach's Dialogue on Miracles in which a monk is subjected to the harangue of a disgruntled emir who sees clearly into the common faults of the Christian world (Book 4, ch. 15). The exchanges between Alexander and Dindimus, king of the Brahmins, are also pertinent here, though Dindimus denounces the faults of Alexander's modern world rather than referring specifically to Christianity, as Alexander is a pagan. For these exchanges, see Kratz's translation of Historia de Preliis (Romances of Alexander, pp. 55-65). Lines 2590-2620 offer a shorter version of the Alexander/Dindimus letters. See also the explanatory note to lines 2573-2637. In all of these texts, the author sees fit to criticize aspects of his own society, but must place these critiques in the mouth of a character from a radically different culture, one untouched by the corrupt society who, perhaps, sees clearly where others do not.

The Saracens' tacit acceptance of Christianity as the true faith is a common feature of medieval European depictions of the Muslim world. Most texts of the Book, in fact, record the Sultan as saying that his people know well by their own prophecies that Christians will prevail in the Middle East, once they learn to live more Christian lives and thus secure the aid of God.

Like the myth of the Christian Emperor Prester John in the East - with whose aid the Holy Land could be converted and annexed for Christianity forever - this belief that the Saracens both accepted and awaited their inevitable defeat in anticipation of a more perfectly Christian world helped fuel the hopes of a Europe eager to extend its religious sovereignty.

1371-77 See explanatory note to lines 1001-02, where Letts attributes this "Saracen" alphabet to a Runic root. Warner claims for it "strong affinities with the Slavonic alphabet known as the Glagolitic," correctly remarking that it is "certainly not, as Mand. would have it, that of 'the Sarzenes' or Arabic" (W, p. 194n71.18). The narrator's reference to the thorn and yogh of the English alphabet has been perceived by some, including Warner, as a possible indication of the author's nationality.

1373-74 now shal Y telle the figures . . . . As earlier (see explanatory note to lines 1001-02), the scribe copies out on fol. 34r three lines of what are meant to be a foreign alphabet, in this case, Saracen.

1395-1402 The sense of this passage is somewhat clearer in other versions. The Pynson text tells us that Athanasius "was accused to the pope at Rome, that he was a heretic. And the pope sent for him and put him into prison and while he was in that same prison he made this psalm [the Athanasian Creed] and sent it unto the pope and said that if he was a heretic, then that was heresy, for that was his troth and his belief. And when the pope saw that, he said therein was all our faith" (K, p. 46; our translation). Athanasius was bishop of Alexandria until his death c. 373 AD.

Several inaccuracies in the Book's report are imported from Odoric. Athanasius did return to his bishopric in his lifetime, and the Athanasius buried in Trebizond is a tenth-century saint of the same name. While the details of Athanasius' conflict with the Church heirarchy are essentially factual, the Athanasian Creed is now commonly believed to have been written by St. Ambrose.

1403-05 Hayton (Lytell Cronycle, ed. Burger, book 1, p. 17) reports how Alexius Comnenus made himself emperor of Trebizond in 1204, at the breakup of the Byzantine Empire.

1406-32 The Book's source for the story of the Castle of the Sparrowhawk is not known. Jean de Arras' French romance Melusine is an analogue, but was compiled between 1387 and 1393, certainly later than the Book. It includes only the story of the king of Armenia, not the account of the poor man who seeks wealth and happiness.

Many texts of the Book also include a third protagonist, a knight of the Temple, who "asked for to have always his purse full of money of gold. And the lady granted him his asking, but she said that he asked destruction for his order. And so it befell afterward" (B, pp. 81-83; our translation), an intriguing footnote to the Templars' fall from power. Warner (W, p. 194n73.17) provides a useful overview of the Sparrowhawk episode.

Seymour (D, p. 151n65/16) identifies the castle with Kizkalesi, built to protect the Lesser Armenian port of Korikos in 1151. Hayton, one of the Book's chief sources, was lord of Korikos in the late 1200s.

1467 he was called Jobab. See Indexed Glossary ("Job") for the conflation of Job with Jobab.

1469 manna. Warner identifies the manna referred to here as most likely the product of Alhagi camelorum, a leguminous plant (W, p. 196n76.7).

1476-92 Bovenschen (Die Quellen, p. 77) gives a comprehensive account of sources on the Amazons available to the Mandeville-author. He perceives this account as a compilation from many different sources. Seymour (D, p. 152n68/17) believes the account of class distinctions among the Amazons, marked by which breast is burned, is original to the Book.

1501-03 Learned speculation abounds as to the root of the story of the Sciapods. John of Marignolli in 1338 attributed the story to the use of parasols in hot climates, which were then "converted" by "poets" into feet (Cathay, ed. Yule, 3.256). Seymour cites Odoric's reference to "unam pedem faxiolorum, apparently an aromatic basil venerated by Hindus," as well as suggesting a mutated gene causing foot deformity among African tribesmen (D, pp. 152-53n69/13).

1505-08 The usual division of India by European geographers was into Greater and Lesser, a pattern generally followed in the Book. Although the boundaries of medieval Europe's conception of "India" are extremely broad (see Indexed Glossary: "Ynde"), Greater India generally corresponds to the Indian subcontinent, while Lesser India refers to the more Mideastern area from southern Arabia to the subcontinent proper. Seymour (B, p. 163n84/21) associates the third "India" mentioned here with Tibet, although a third "India," roughly corresponding to Ethiopia, is now commonly linked to the story of Prester John, the fabled "Emperor of India." It would, of course, hardly be northern and cold, but the Book's placement of a reference to the third India in such close proximity to a discourse on Ethiopia is suggestive.

1513 a mas. The manuscript here reads "Amas." Apparently either the scribe or his exemplar has mistaken it for a country.

1569-86 The difference between simulacrum and idol is somewhat confused here. The distinction that appears to underlie the passage is one between simulacra as fanciful images, such as three-headed beasts, and idols as images of natural creatures, such as Hercules. The transposition of the examples (Hercules as simulacrum, the ox-man as idol) thus clouds the issue. This confusion is found generally throughout the Defective texts.

The Cotton text sets out a clearer distinction as well as reversing the definitions:

For simulacres be images made after likeness of men or of women or of the sun or of the moon or of any beast or of any kindly [natural] thing. And idols is an image made of lewd will of man that man may not find among kindly things, as an image that hath four heads, one of man, another of an horse or of an ox or of some other beast that no man hath seen after kindly description. (S, p. 127).

Thus its examples of Hercules as simulacrum and ox-man as idol are placed in the proper context.

1586-87 And they do worship . . . ferst on the morwe. Other versions include more details about this worship. The Cotton text, for example, explains that because meetings with particular animals are considered auspicious, especially first thing in the morning, the people make images of them and place them where they will see them. The text then goes on to deplore the fact that even some Christians hold this superstition, despite having sound doctrine to guide them better. The pagans also believe in augury and ornithomancy, but the text suggests they would be better served by a belief in Christianity (S, ch. 18).

1597 For Y have dronke of that well. The narrator's claim to have drunk from the Fountain of Youth is one of the more striking in a long line of attempts to assert his authenticity as a world traveler and firsthand authority on the marvels of the Eastern world. His account of having traveled through the Vale Perilous in the company of a pair of monks (lines 2510-23) is believed by most scholars to be an effort to insert himself into the actual experience of Friar Odoric of Pordenone, who reports his own traversal of the Vale in his Itinerarium. The narrator's pained admission that he was not able to visit the Garden of Eden, although he has passed by it (lines 2705-06), is a striking negative example of the same phenomenon, clearly intended to enhance the narrator's role as the truthful guide.

1609 gaule gaule. Odoric, from whom the report of this anointing stems, does not record the substance. Since ox gall was widely used in medicines, painting, and cleansing, it seems likely that the substance would be gall, rather than dung.

1618 they brenne hym. The sense here seems to be that the dead man is to be spared the indignity of being devoured by worms and his body disposed of in the more sanctified, ritualized manner of cremation.

1620 they brenne her with hym. For comparison of textual variations in this account of the practice of suttee, see K, pp. xxxi-xxxiii. The report of the practice derives from Odoric, and is found again at lines 1831-33, in Calonache.

1629 Be thow noght of wanhope, but trywe. John 20:27. It is interesting that the Mandeville-author chooses to translate incredulus as wanhope (despair), as if disbelief in God is not merely disbelief but a kind of depression as well. Compare Ayenbite of Inwit (ed. Gradon), section 29/12, and Chaucer's Parson's Tale, X[I]693.

1633 Seynt Thomas hande. While the account of St. Thomas' shrine is largely derived from Odoric, he does not mention the miraculous hand of judgment. Versions of the story were widely circulated in the Middle Ages, however, and the story may well have been adapted here from the Letter of Prester John.

1650 ff. Many texts of the Book here contain a subtle indictment of the impiety of Christians as compared with the religious fervor of the Juggernaut's worshipers. The Pynson text remarks that "a man shall find few Christian men that will suffer so much penance for Our Lord's sake as they do for their idol" (K, p. 55; our translation). The Cotton text is even more pointed: "And, schortly to seye you, thei suffren so grete peynes and so harde martyrdomes for loue of here ydole that a Cristene man, I trowe, durst not taken vpon him the tenthe part the peyne for loue of oure lord Jhesu Crist" (S, p. 129).

The narrator's tolerance for the practices and beliefs of other (non-Judaic) religions and his willingness to view their fervor as a corrective to Christian apathy have long been a subject for discussion in scholarship on the Book. His admiration for the faith and commitment of the Easterners as well as the Saracens is well documented, although he of course maintains his belief in Christianity as the only true faith.

1677-78 wexeth and be multeplied and fulfyll the erthe. Genesis 9:1 and 9:7.

1687-1778 This lengthy passage on the roundness of the world is interpolated at the point where, in Odoric's account of his journey east, he reflects that he can no longer see the North Star because of the curvature of the earth. The interpolation, which cuts the narrator's discourse on the "Isle of Lamory" into two parts, is found only in a small number of English manuscripts of the Book and is missing from K. Drawing heavily on Sacrobosco's De sphaera, the narrator seemingly intends to show that the earth is a sphere. He claims to have traveled far enough to be able to prove the curvature of the earth through astronomical measurements, which show the pole stars at varying heights depending upon one's latitude. The narrator's mathematical reckonings are quite distorted. It is unclear how he has determined that he has seen 95 degrees and nigh half a minute of the firmament or why, if that were the case, another 80.5 degrees would render him master of "all the firmament" (lines 1707-08). One hundred seventy-five degrees and half a minute would be shy of "all the firmament," even if one treated the earth as a hemisphere. Still, the ensuing discussion of how those in the south are"foot against foot" with those in the north suggests that the world is to be understood as a complete sphere of 360 degrees, despite the numerical confusion.

In seeking to establish genealogical relationships among the various manuscripts of the Defective Version of the Book, Seymour initially used the interpolation of this lengthy discourse on the roundness of the world as the mark of a subgroup, the "A-texts" ("English Manuscripts," p. 169). In his edition of the Defective Version, however, he has restructured his subgroupings, and the rotundity of the world passage is barely noted. He remarks of the Royal 17C manuscript, "It has four of the five characteristic features of subgroup 2 . . . but includes the account of the rotundity of the world; with this exception it avoids all the features of subgroup 1" (D, p. xxi). (Subgroup 2 were formerly the "B-texts, " but subgroup 1 does not correspond to the previous A-texts. Unfortunately, Seymour makes no reference to his previous structure in outlining the newer one, and so the reasons for this realignment remain unclear.) This new approach tends to gloss over the fact that this lengthy passage on the roundness of the world is found in only a very limited number of English manuscripts, and that its inclusion in Royal 17C suggests the manuscript represents the conflation of more than one copy-text.

1688-90 Transmontane . . . Anteryke. Transmontayne is the northern Pole Star, balanced in the text by the southern Pole Star, Anteryke. While there is no true southern Pole Star (the closest modern claimant, Sigma Octantis, is far too dim to serve mariners in any useful capacity) the text may refer to the star Canopus, one of the brightest stars in the sky, which is not visible in the more northern latitudes. Canopus is mentioned in the text at line 2679, but not as the Pole Star.

1724-26 for and a man . . . no shadowe. The time "when the night and the day are alike long" refers, of course, to the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. At noon on the equinox, a spear held upright at the equator should make no shadow, a point made by Eratosthenes. Jerusalem resides, however, along the thirty-second parallel and so in practice the experiment would not work. The belief that it would is based on the common medieval conception of Jerusalem as "the middle of the world" (see explanatory note to line 23).

1727-28 God hath y-wrought hele in the myddel of the erthe. Vulgate Psalm 73:12.

1737-39 dryvynge beestys . . . how that might be. Words used for driving and calling beasts, such as "gee," "haw," "sooey," and "gawayeh," are idiosyncratic, and unlikely to be duplicated by other cultures or learned by those who study a language. Thus it is surprising to hear them in what the traveler takes to be a foreign land.

1751 Have no drede that Y have the erthe honged of noght. Compare Job 26:7.

1757-58 The narrator's previous assertion, "I say . . . he was y-come into his owen marches" (lines 1739-40), as well as his assertion of his own sense of the earth's circumference here, are characteristic of the Book's assumption of authority on matters of geographical calculation and may act as another form of truth-claim on the part of the narrator, who clearly wishes to speak with the authority of one who has seen for himself. Ironically, the passage is borrowed from Brunetto Latini, who similarly offers to emend the calculation he has at hand "after [his] little wit" (see D, p. 156n81/20). For comparison of the following passage - the reckoning of the earth's circumference - with those found in other texts of the Book, see K, pp. 36-37.

1759-71 The image is of two concentric circles, the smaller representing the earth and the larger the firmament. Dividing the figure into 360 degrees, as the passage goes on to suggest, provides two arcs corresponding to each degree: the larger representing the size of one degree of the firmament and the smaller representing the corresponding one degree of the earth's circumference. Thus, if one knows the size of the larger arc and the size ratio of the two concentric circles, one can calculate the size of the smaller arc. Once this is known, simply multiplying by 360 degrees will neatly render the earth's circumference.

The calculation itself is confused here by the fact that, rather than supplying the necessary information - the length of one degree of the firmament and the size ratio of firmament to earth - the scribe apparently adds up the 360 degrees represented by each sphere, thus coming up with the number 720. Multiplying 720 by 360 provides no useful information as neither is a measure of distance, nor does the product come near the stated 21,005 miles.

The plan for the calculation comes from Eratosthenes through Vincent of Beauvais. Eratosthenes equates one degree with 700 stadia (furlongs) and thus is able to carry the calculation through as our text is not. See Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturale VI.13, col. 377.

1771-78 The effort to determine the world's"height" implies a commitment to some form of hemispheric model, at least for the purposes of the calculation. This view is bolstered by the text's insistence that those areas of the world too far east and west of the center cannot be considered. While such a caveat would seem at first glance to render accurate computation hopeless, it may be that the objective is to establish an equatorial baseline from which to calculate the height of the top half of the spherical earth.

1775 clymates. MED (1a) explains that a "climate" is "the region of the earth dominated by a particular planet."

1787 maces. The spice known as mace is the rind of the nutmeg.

1794-95 Gret Cane of Catay. Khan was the title of the rulers of the Mongol Empire. The Great Khan figures largely in the latter chapters of the Book, wherein his empire and its customs will be discussed at length.

1800 meele. MED (n.1a) cites this line to mean "dried sap ground into meal or flour."

1804 tryacle. Here the term implies an antidote. See MED n.a.

1855 houndes hedes. The cynocephali (men with dogs' heads) are reported in the Andaman Islands by Marco Polo (Travels, ed. Latham, Book 3, chapter 18). Seymour (D, p. 157n85/23) suggests that "the myth is perhaps linked to the larger lemur indris of Madagascar, but the common baboon in southern Africa also have dog-like heads." For two illustrations, see Williams, Deformed Discourse, p. 139. Friedman points out the connections in medieval thinking between cynocephali and Muslims (Monstrous Races, pp. 67-69), emphasizing their oft-cited civilized behavior and thus potential for conversion. Possibly the most famous cynocephalus in medieval culture is St. Christopher, whose head changed from canine to human after his conversion. See Friedman, pp. 72-74.

1860-61 in maner of pater-noster of aumbre. I.e., "in the same way that we make rosaries out of amber beads." The passage in Cotton reads: "And he hath abouten his nekke ccc. perles oryent, gode and grete and knotted as Pater Nostres here of amber" (S, p. 144).

1888 men that haveth noon heed. The Blemmyae make frequent appearances in medieval travel- and wonder-narratives. See Friedman, Monstrous Races, pp. 145-46, on Alexander's encounters with the Blemmyae. For an excellent illustration, see Friedman, p. 139, plate 40a. See also Williams, Deformed Discourse, pp. 134-35.

1890 men that haveth a plat visage. Seymour (D, p. 157n86/14) associates the flat-faces with lepers.

1924 begoun. Probably a reference to bagni, the Persian word for beer.

1944 pegmans. For a comprehensive overview of medieval accounts of the pygmies, see W, pp. 203-04n103.11.

1965 vynes. Apparently a doubling of "ryvers." Pynson (K, p. 62) has "ryvers and vyners" but omits the idea that fish and wildfowl are to be found in both. Seymour, in his Cotton translation, inexplicably refers to both as "vivers" in which fowl of all descriptions are to be found (Mandeville's Travels [1968], p. 164).

1969-73 Odoric describes the red skins; they are sometimes identified as the hide of the red panda or "catbear," known for its muskiness. Vincent of Beauvais, however, notes the common folk-belief that panthers attracted their prey with the sweetness of their breath. The Book may here be conflating the two.

1983-84 a contrefeit of a mannes foot uppon her hedes. Seymour identifies this headdress with the gu-gu or ku-ku, a cloth tail of sorts that hung from the hats of high-ranking Tartar wives (B, p. 170n127/16; D, p. 160n93/6).

2009 myne felawes and Y were soudeours with hym. Odoric's three years as a missionary in Kaán-balik (Beijing), the Great Khan's capital city, are here transformed by the narrator into his own sixteen-month stint as a mercenary in the Great Khan's army. For the narrator's ongoing program of co-opting the experience of Friar Odoric as his own, see also the explanatory note to line 1597.

2018-48 The story of how the title "Khan" stems from Noah's son "Cham" is presented here as fact, but the narrator then goes on to assert that the title is not"Cham" but "Cana," stemming from "Changyse" (Genghis), the first of the great Khans. The intent is apparently to supplant the first, perhaps more usual, etymology of the title with the second.

In Genesis it is Ham who takes primacy over Egypt while Shem takes Asia; however, the transposition that enables the association of the Khan with Ham on etymological grounds was common. In fact, the word khán is Mongolian for "lord." Henry Yule, however, points out a distinction in the Mongolian tongue between khán (lord) and kaán, the title reserved for the Great Khan (cited in W, p. 205n109.xxiv), which apparently derives from Khákán, "Khan of Khans."

2037 a knyght all white. Seymour (D, pp. 160-61n95/18) offers a bibliography on the white knight, who apparently represents the shaman Tab-Tengri. In legend, Tab-Tengri rides to consult the sky-god (Tengri) before the election of the Khan.

Mongolian worship of Tengri as the "one God" may underlie many medieval accounts of the essential Christianity of the Mongols. The Khan is later reported venerating the Cross (lines 2179-83), and the custom of giving him gifts is traced back to a biblical precedent (lines 2185-87) as if he were himself Christian.

2049 Isacan. From Mongolian yasa kaán: the Code of the Great Khan, set down by Genghis Khan in 1225. For a useful discussion of the code, see Ayalon, "Great Yasa."

2083 so wan he the lond of Cathay. Seymour (D, p. 161n97/9) speculates that these details may refer to the first in the long series of campaigns by which Genghis Khan rose to rule Cathay: the conquest of the Karakhitai in 1209.

2089 grettest Cane. The first "Great Khan" was Genghis Khan (c. 1162-1227). The son who succeeded him as Great Khan was Ogodai, who ruled from 1229 to 1241. The Book's spelling, "Chicoto" (line 2087), may point to an erroneous belief that Genghis's third son, Chagatay, had succeeded him. Chagatay and Ogodai are often conflated.

The Prussian and Russian campaigns were largely the work of Ogodai's nephew (Genghis' grandson) Batu. Batu established the Blue Horde, which became the cornerstone of the more famous Golden Horde, the Kipchak Khanate, centered on the Volga. The conquest of all Europe from this base was narrowly averted by internal problems in the Mongol Empire, which forced the westward-moving Mongols back toward the heart of the empire at a critical juncture, whence they never returned in force. For further information on the Khanates see Juvaini, Genghis Khan; Boyle, Mongol World Empire; Saunders, History of the Mongol Conquests; and Chambers, Devil's Horsemen.

2090-2098 While these inscriptions may derive in part from actual letters sent by the Khans to the popes, the ideas of the Great Khan employing a "great seal" and a "privy seal" and invoking what appears to be the Christian God are clearly interpolations. Seymour calls Hayton's claim that a bishop in his party baptized the Great Khan Mongke in 1254 "very doubtful" (D, p. 161n98/10).

2100 ff. Warner's note (W, p. 207n114.xxv) is extremely useful on the matter of the feasts of the Mongol year. While Odoric (the Book's source here) says there are four great feasts, he delineates only two: the Great Khan's birthday and what he calls "festum Circumcisionis," the feast of the Circumcision. Since circumcision was entirely unknown among the Mongols, it seems likely that Odoric means not a celebration of the Khan's circumcision day, but rather the New Year; the Feast of the Circumcision in the Catholic calendar is January first. Marco Polo describes both the Great Khan's birthday and the New Year as significant celebrations in the Mongol world, but he places the New Year celebration more accurately in February, when the Chinese New Year begins.

2116-17 astrelabers . . . coles brennyng. Some text is clearly missing from this passage, as an astrolabe is not a device that can be said to be full of sand or burning coals. The error is pervasive in the Defective Version and is probably due to an eyeskip. The Cotton text reads: "And every of them have before them astrolabes of gold, some spheres, some the brainpan of a dead man, some vessels of gold full of coals burning" (Seymour, Mandeville's Travels [1968], p. 179, our italics). A scribe, looking back and forth to his copy-text, might easily skip from one "gold" to the next, deleting the text between.

2145-46 he tretith more with Cristen men than with Sarasyns. In the context of the Mandeville-author's acclaimed respect for other religions, it is interesting to note that this reference to the Khan's preference for Christians is apparently original to the Book.

2161-69 The Khan's opulent car of lignum aloes (Jinko-wood - line 2163) might provide the ruler with greater privacy but certainly not with greater secrecy as to his movements - the meaning most often inferred from privé mayne (line 2162). Most texts agree that he rides upon "no horse" rather than "an horse, " unless he desires secrecy. The glorious car is thus his more usual mode of transportation. It seems likely, too, that it would be drawn by the elephants and horses, rather than carrying them within it.

2177 Veni creator spiritus. "Come, creating spirit"; beginning of a hymn sung on the feast of Pentecost.

2187 No man come in my sight voyde. Exodus 23:15.

2225 toun. Probably an error for "tent," the reading given by the Pynson and most other texts. The passage goes on to specify that the Khan is buried with his home for the next world.

The Cotton text includes a passage suggesting that the Khan's burial is kept secret from the common people, allowing the lords to claim that he has been divinely transported to Heaven (Seymour, Mandeville's Travels [1968], p. 195), thus rendering it doubly unlikely that he would be placed in state in the middle of the town. Moseley (Travels, p. 160) notes that he has imported the same passage into his predominantly Egerton edition "from MS Royal 20 B. X.," but due to the movement and renaming of manuscripts, it is now unclear to what manuscript he refers.

2268-69 The legend that Alexander the Great had fortified the pass of Derbend was widely accepted in the Middle Ages, and is referenced by such authors as Marco Polo, Benjamin of Tudela, and William of Rubruck. According to the tenth-century Arabic traveler Abu Al Mas'udi, however, Derbend was fortified by the Persians in the sixth century to protect against incursions by the Alans, Turks, and other invaders from the north (see W, p. 211n126.10).

2293 Perce. The Pynson, Egerton, and Cotton Versions all make clear that Armenia, not Persia, is the land under discussion. In Pynson, Armenia "begins at Persia and lasts westward to Turkey in length" (K, p. 72; our translation).

2306-07 that contré is covered al with derknes. There are many medieval tales of lands of darkness, which are generally explained as melding observation of the arctic night with biblical interest in the "valley of the shadow of death." The Book's source, Hayton, claims to have witnessed this land of darkness with his own eyes in the realm of Georgia; the Book translates it to Abkhazia. In either case, the long arctic night is an unlikely explanation given the local lattitude. Warner speculates that "no doubt there was some natural phenomenon in the neighborhood which favoured, if it did not originate, the legend" (W, p. 212 n128.6). Seymour suggests "a seasonal fog" (D, p. 164n109/2).

The area around the Garden of Eden is also described as a land of darkness "where no man may see on day ne on nyght" at line 2698.

2322-23 Of Our Lorde this is y-do, and that is mervayl in our eyen. Vulgate Psalm 117:23.

2328 vuryk and rychasse. The phrase is of uncertain meaning, and comparison with other texts of the Book reveals little since our manuscript takes a unique turn in adding this clause to the description of Turkey. The word vuryk is of particular issue since it does not appear to occur anywhere else in Middle English. For our gloss of the term as "wealth," we have relied on context and the assumption that it functions in tautology with rychasse, a French spelling of the word for "riches, " cited in the MED (richesse).

2342-47 The narrator here draws on the story of the "barnacle goose," an animal introduced to bestiary lore in 1187 by Geraldus Cambrensis. Barnacle geese were said to grow off pine beams floating in the water, attached by their beaks and taking nourishment from both the wood and the sea. T. H. White theorizes that the story arose in response to the generally "wingy" look of several species of shellfish (especially mussels) and the fact that some species of geese were never seen to nest (Bestiary, pp. 267-68). The vegetable lamb, also known as the borametz, has its most extensive study in Henry Lee's Vegetable Lamb. See also Williams, Deformed Discourse, pp. 208-10, and especially Bennett, Rediscovery of Sir John Mandeville, p. 219, where an illustration from the Livre des merveilles (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 2810, fol. 120v) depicts a distinctively Islamic character bearing the open piece of fruit, miniature lamb within, to Christian travelers. The travelers are holding a branch full of barnacle geese.

2370 And then shal these Jewes speke Ebreu. I.e., in the time of the Antichrist, when the tribes of Gog and Magog will break free of their prison and set out to wreak havoc on the earth. The narrator suggests that all the world's Jews are simply biding their time, waiting to aid and abet this final assault on Christendom. The Book's hostility toward Judaism is especially marked in the context of its greater tolerance for Islam and Nestorianism. For a compelling investigation of the Book's attitude toward the Jews, see Braude, "Mandeville's Jews among Others."

2392 ff. Belief in the existence of Prester John, the powerful ruler of a vast Nestorian Christian empire to the east, was a major bolster to European confidence in the inevitability of Christian victory over Islam. If ever the two mighty realms of Christendom could be brought to act together to win the Holy Land, victory seemed certain. This may account for the persistence of the myth, even after numerous travelers had failed to find any proof of its veracity.

Both William of Rubruck and Odoric identify Prester John with the Khan of the Keraits, and admit that he is not as generally imagined by Europeans. The apocryphal Letter of Prester John (c. 1165), however, asserts the existence of a structured and vital Christian community under Prester John in the East. Seymour notes that while the Keraits had become nominal Nestorians in the early eleventh century, "all the accounts of the friars (Carpini, Rubruck, Odoric) stress the degeneration of their practice and belief to levels of barbarism" (D, p. 166n115/9). For further information, see Atiya, History of Eastern Christianity; Moffett, History of Christianity in Asia; and Dunlop, "Karaits of Eastern Asia." See also explanatory note to lines 1300-18.

2401 for hit is longer way. India is of course closer to Europe by sea than China, and closer to Europe than the Khan's capital city by any possible route. The medieval European conception of"Inde, " however, does not correspond well with the modern boundaries of India. The Book associates "Inde" variously with northern, eastern, and western Asia, and even with east Africa. Prester John was variously credited with being emperor of India and of Ethiopia, titles which may have been felt to be synonymous at the time. See Indexed Glossary: "Ynde."

2423 Gravel See. See explanatory note to line 423.

2430 hit is maner of ire. The description of the fruit as "iron" probably results from a confusion of"faerie" with"fer" (iron). Thus fey fruit becomes iron fruit.

2468-70 The patriarke of Seynt Thomas . . . alle the kynges. The sense in most other manuscripts is that the patriarch of St. Thomas is analogous to the pope, while the archbishop, bishop, and abbot in that land are all kings. This text's grammatical structure suggests that such a reading is not intended here, but the reading that is offered is somewhat nonsensical.

2473-91 The Paradise of the Assassins was a false heaven, constructed by Catholonabeus (Hassan i Sabbah, also known as "The Old Man of the Mountain") to induce men to undertake political murders on his behalf. Using a combination of drugs (whence the common name of the Assassins: Hashishi'yun) and promises of eternal reward in this garden of delights, he lured many men to kill and die in his service before he was hunted down and his "Paradise" destroyed in the mid-thirteenth century. Warner (W, p. 216n137.6) offers a thorough discussion of the cult of the Assassins and the various branches of the sect. Pinto, in her recent Mandeville's Travels, offers comparative passages on the Assassin's Paradise from the Book, Marco Polo, Odoric of Pordenone, and Ibn Khalikan (pp. 60-64).

2491 I shal gyve yow londe flowying mylke and hony. Leviticus 20:24.

2512 2 freres menoures of Lumbardye. The narrator's assertion that he entered the Valley Perilous in the company of these friars is generally taken as an attempt to insert himself into the experience of Friar Odoric of Pordenone, who reports on his journey through the Valley in the Book's chief source for this section. As with other truth-claim passages in the text, the narrator is presented as having firsthand experience he apparently lacks. While much of the account is borrowed from Odoric, the Book adds such further details as the presence of a hell-mouth and the deaths of four of the narrator's companions.

Both Warner (W, pp. 216-17n138.xxxi) and Seymour (D, pp. 167-68n 120/15) devote considerable energy to attempting to fix the location of the Valley.

2531 stones in her eyen. The story of women with stones in their eyes apparently refers to the Bithyae of Scythia, reported by Vincent of Beauvais (Speculum Historiale IV.15). Vincent, however, describes them as having pupillas geminas (double pupils), a description the Mandeville-author appears to have misinterpreted as pupillas gemmas (gemstone pupils) (see D, p. 168n122/14-17).

2533-45 Many pagan religions incorporate some form of ritual sexual contact between women and strangers, either before or after marriage. As Seymour notes, however, the Mandeville-author has apparently conflated two accounts that occur side by side in Vincent of Beauvais to create his somewhat bizarre explanation for the employment of the gadlybyriens: one of a culture in which male guests at a wedding are encouraged to have sex with the bride, and the other of a group of "snake-eating troglodytes" (D, p.168n122/22).

2561 gyrsaunt. While the narrator originally suggests the giraffe is a bird, he does go on to describe it in terms more applicable: as being like a horse or a deer but with substantially more neck.

2569-70 lonhorauns . . . tontys. MED has no citations for either of these terms; however, the"Anddontrucion" of the Middle English Prose Life of Alexander (ed. Westlake, p. 71) is a similar beast, presumably a rhinoceros.

2573-2637 The text offers a dual account of the Brahmins and their philosophy of simplicity and peace, first describing them as inhabitants of a gret ile and plenteuous (line 2573), and then repeating the account of them as a second people, the inhabitants of Synople (line 2605). Seymour, in attempting to establish genealogical relationships among the Defective manuscripts, initially used this dual account of the Brahmins as the distinctive mark of a whole subgroup of manuscripts, the "B-Texts" of the Book (see "English Manuscripts," p. 169). That the manuscript edited here contains both this double account and the long discussion of the world's rotundity (the mark of an "A-text" in Seymour's early structure; see explanatory note to lines 1687-1778) marks this manuscript as an anomaly among texts of the Defective Version. It is generally listed as "Independently derived" in hand-lists of the English manuscripts of the Book. See Seymour, Sir John Mandeville, p. 44, and K, p. 96.

The narrator's assertions that the Brahmins and Synoplians please God despite being non-Christians and that we cannot know of whom God approves are apparently original to the Book and are frequently commented upon as exemplary of the narrator's great tolerance for people of other faiths. It is notable, however, that his tolerance is more pronounced toward those he has never seen, such as the Brahmins. The Book does not tolerate Judaism, nor, despite the narrator's personal admiration for the conduct of the Sultan and his people, does it fully tolerate Islam. Indeed, most texts including this one begin with an exhortation to the men of Christendom "to conquere oure ryght heritage [the Holy Land] and chace away the myssetrewantes" (lines 42-43).

2628 I shal put to hem my lawes manyfold. Hosea 8:12.

2629-30 I have other sheep that beth noght of this foold. John 10:16.

2635 Calle thow noght thilke thingis unclene which God hath clensed. Acts 10:15.

2643 peple ben all in fetheris. The feathered men apparently result from a confusion of the French toutz pelluz (all rough) with toutz pennez (all feathers). The reading toutz pelluz is found in the Continental Version of the Book (see D, pp. 169-70n127/14).

2663 Witsoneday. Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter. The feast of Whitsunday commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and is often preferred as a time for baptism of converts and ordination of priests.

2665-69 This explanation of the title"Prester John" is apparently original to the Book.

2671 as men of Grece doth. I.e., in the form used by the Greek Orthodox Church.

2674 wordes which Goddes body is makid with. I. e., the Consecration of the Eucharist.

2681-95 Seymour claims a basis in fact for the story of the gold-digging ants: "In the Karakoram mountains between India and Pakistan marmots (Arctomys Himalayanas, called 'mountain ants' in Persian) burrow to a depth of three feet to a gold-bearing stratum of sand and throw up the spoil, which the local Minaro people still refine" (D, p. 171n129/21). While a marmot is actually a groundhog-like rodent, hearing the story at second hand one might easily take these"mountain ants" for ants in fact.

2685-2769 Seymour ("English Manuscripts," p. 183) describes the Royal 17C manuscript as bound in "3 + 1-78, 84 (wants 1,4)." R is missing a folio here, the first leaf of the final signature. Text from men of the countré (line 2685) to And than the prestys and the religyous cutte (lines 2768-69) is supplied from the Pynson Version (K, pp. 88-91). While the two texts generally accord fairly well, it seems likely, given the length of the interpolated passage, that Royal 17C's treatment of the material would have been somewhat abbreviated by comparison.

The manuscript also misses the last few lines, which would have been on the missing fourth leaf of the eighth quire. These have also been supplied from K. See the explanatory note to lines 2856-57.

2700-04 While the narrator here and at lines 2737-41 firmly asserts the roundness of the earth - a point he has made at length previously in the text (at lines 1687-1778) - the idea of the east as "at the beginning of the earth" accords more clearly with a flat-earth model. The narrator may here be conflating an old source with newer ideas.

While the passage leaves the matter of the eastern dawn's relation to English midnight slightly unclear, most other texts of the Book are somewhat clearer on this point. Cotton's rendering is typical: "But that is not that east that we clepe our east on this half where the sun riseth to us. For when the sun is east in those parts toward Paradise Terrestre, it is then midnight in our parts on this half for the roundness of the earth" (Seymour, Mandeville's Travels [1968], p. 234). Thus the place where "we" see the sun rising is not as far east as the Garden of Eden, for when the sun rises over Eden, "we" are still in utter darkness.

2705-06 Of Paradyse can I nat speke . . . and that angoreth me. The narrator's admission that he did not go to the Garden of Eden is generally taken as a canny variation on the truth-claim motif. While Eden was popularly believed to be located in this region, to claim to have actually visited the place would have strained credulity to the breaking point. Since it was commonly believed that Eden was unapproachable due to factors such as its great height and the raging torrent of rivers issuing from it (noted by such luminaries as Vincent of Beauvais, Isidore of Seville, and Peter Comestor), the narrator's presentation of himself as the traveler who must reluctantly concede that the popular opinion is correct makes an effective claim for his veracity.

2782 And of the skulle . . . make a coppe. The people of "Ryboth" (Tibet) preserved the practice of using human skulls as drinking vessels for religious ceremonies until well into the twentieth century.

2808 And alle eyndes of the erthe shal drede Hym. Vulgate Psalm 65:4.

2809 All people shal serve to Hym. Vulgate Psalm 71:11.

2810-11 This non-Trinitarian view of God may be reflective of Nestorian Christianity in the Far East. The following account of the worship of idols and simulacra, however, with the natives' insistence that "Cristen men haveth images of Our Lady and of other" (lines 2817-18), suggests a predominantly non-Christian faith, presumably the worship of Tengri, by whose grace virtue is instilled in such statues. The worship of Tengri as "the one God" is at least monotheistic and may have inspired the Book's optimism regarding the closeness of Eastern religion to European Christianity.

2818-21 The narrator here defends the Catholic practice of incorporating statuary into worship, insisting that this does not constitute idolatry because worshipers venerate not the statue itself but the holy figure it represents. The narrator does, however, admit to worshiping the saints, a practice at which extreme Protestant thinkers would soon take umbrage.

2824-25 Chaco and Calo. From the Greek kakos (bad) and kalos (good). Seymour (D, p. 172n134.24) notes that Plato's term "cachodemon" (evil spirit) was in lively use by encyclopedists such as Vincent of Beauvais.

2834-37 As so often happens in the course of medieval manuscript transmission, the numbers have here become somewhat corrupt. The narrator asserts that he embarked on his travels in 1332 and wrote the book in 1366. Thus he has written the book in the thirty-fourth year after his departure, not the twenty-fourth as the text asserts. In the Pynson edition the narrator says he left on his travels in 1332, and has "compiled this book and written it the year of our lord 1366 at 33 years [sic] after my departing from my country" (K, p. 92; our translation). The Egerton text is nearly identical, although its numbers agree to a thirty-four-year span of time. The Cotton text records a departure in 1322, followed by the writing of the book in 1356, thirty-four years later; in this it accords with many Continental texts of the Book.

The narrator's assertion that he has left much unsaid so that the next traveler may have something unheard-of to report is one of his friendlier truth-claims.

2838-48 This passage, commonly referred to as the "papal interpolation," is found in all the complete English texts of the Book with the exception of the two English manuscripts of the Bodley Version (Bodleian Library MSS Rawlinson D 99 and eMusaeo 116) and also in a single Latin text (Durham University MS Cosin V. iii. 7). It is thus generally considered to have been added into the Book sometime after it was first translated into English. Such assertions of papal sanction were a common form of truth-claim in the Middle Ages.

Seymour argues persuasively (B, p. 174n146/7) that the interpolation "could hardly have occurred much before 1400," as lingering memory of the Babylonian captivity, the papacy at Avignon from 1309-77, would have rendered the inaccuracy of the author's claim to have met with the pope in Rome in 1356 immediately apparent.

Efforts to use the interpolation to help date the English versions of the Book have met with limited success. For further reference, see Higgins (Writing East, pp. 254-60), May ("Dating the English Translation"), Moseley ("Sir John Mandeville's Visit"), and Thomas ("Date of Mandeville's Travels).

2852 part of alle my good pilgremage. While at least one scholar (Mandeville's Travels, ed. Hamelius) has perceived the book as having hidden Lollard leanings despite its early date and uncertain early connection with England, Seymour makes the excellent point that this passage is decidedly non-Lollard in its views: "The traditional disposing of part of alle myn pilgrymage was one of many contemporary customs associated with the pilgrim which were censured by the Lollards" (B, p. 175n147/13). One might compare Margery Kempe, another traveler frequently accused of Lollardy but never convicted, and her insistence on parceling out the grace accrued in her travels.

2856-57 The final leaf (4th leaf, 8th quire) is missing from the manuscript, as is a large section from earlier in the eighth quire (see explanatory note to lines 2685-2769). The final lines have therefore been imported from the Pynson edition (K, p. 93), which parallels this passage very closely.





 

THE BOOK OF JOHN MANDEVILLE: TEXTUAL NOTES

ABBREVIATIONS: see Explanatory Notes.


Obvious corrections of scribal errors and apparent omissions have been made in the text and are recorded without comment below. We have consulted Seymour's EETS critical edition of the Defective version and Kohanski's edition of Pynson's first print of Defective.



2 worlde. R: wordle. Further examples of this spelling will be silently amended to worlde, which form also often occurs in the manuscript.

4 mervailles. R: mervaille. Crossed final double ls in all words are read as abbreviations and silently expanded only when necessary.

17 was. So K, D. R omits.

21 as the. R: and. K, D: as for the.

38 that. So K, D. R: he.

41 which. R: whenne. K, D: for the whiche.

46 lordes. So K. R: londes. D: lordis.

77 principal. R: pricipal. K: pryncypall. D: principale.

78 man. R: inserted above the line.

82 lorde. So K. R: londe. D: lord.

84 Rosse. So K, D. R: Rome.

86 lond of. R: inserted above the line.

men₂. So K, D. R: me.

100 to holde. R: inserted above the line.

110 to. So D. R, K omit.

137 they₁. R: the; hereafter the in the manuscript for they will be silently emended.

143 he. So K, D. R omits.

145 angel. R: angle. K: aungell. D: aungel.

184 with. So D. R omits. K: of one.

200 Bouch. R: boüch. K, D: bouche.

208 which. So D. R: which was. K: whyche.

214 hyghe. R: hyhe. K: hygh. D: grete.

215 is. R: his. K, D: it is.

227 the. So K, D. R omits.

241 playn. R: playn playn.

244 subdiectos. R: subdiiectos. K, D: subiectos.

252 unctioun. R: unccoun. D: vnccioun. K is missing the section that corresponds with lines 250-90.

254 shal have ne joye. R: omits ne. D: schul noþer haue ioiʒe.

280 ageyn. R: geyn. D: aʒen.

283 George. So D. R: Gorge.

320 and she. R omits she. K, D: þat.

335 saw. R: was saw. K: sawe. D: sauʒ.

347 beth₂. So D. R omits. K: ar.

357 that. R: the. K: they whyche. D: þe whiche.

372 erthe. R: followed by inkblot.

394 she. R: he. K: that. D: heo.

396 Didon. R: Dido. K: Dydon. D: Sidon.

398-99 he shall go fro Cypre by see to port Jaffe, for that is the next haven to Jerusalem. R omits due to eyeskip. Supplied from K, p. 13. D: he schal go fro Cypre to port Iaff by see, for þat is þe nexte hauene to Ierusalem.

437 And. So K, D. R: In.

454 of₂. R: inserted above the line.

459 no. So K, D. R: no no.

461 hit₁. R: his. K, D: it.

473 is. So K, D. R omits.

488 he. So K, D. R: they.

509 for. R: for Idum; the word Idum, which confuses the sense, is not found in K or D.

515 kyn. So K, D. R: kyng.

549 rosers. So K. R: roses. D: roseris.

597 of₂. So D. R omits. K is missing the section that corresponds to lines 593-637.

609 40. So D. R: blank space; some Defective manuscripts have 40; other versions have 140. See D, p. 177n28/22, and our explanatory note to line 609.

613 toun. R: toun wal.

620 forfyde. R: forsyde. D: payned.

634 y-wryte. R: y-wryte this.

636 That is to say thus. R omits. D: þat is to say.

638 rasis. So D. R, K: basis.

645 But. R: But O.

658 a. R: a va.

688 without. So K. R: with. D: wiþoute.

715 brenne. R: brenne that cite.

748 yerd. R: yerd with the which.

776 Templum. R: templum dominium.

795 his. So K. R: is. D: þe.

807 that. So K, D. R omits.

841 That is to say. So K, D. R omits, but supplied to parallel other quotations.

857-95 Corresponding section is missing in K.

873 an asse. R: blank space. Supplied from D, p. 40.20.

884 is a chirche. R omits. Supplied from D, p. 41.2.

886 hit. R: his. D: it.

894 is. So D. R omits.

897 in the which. R omits which. K: where. D: whare.

904 that is y-called. R omits is. K, D: that men call.

939 Job. So K. R: Joph. D: Ioab.

942 Y am. R: Y have am.

971 is. So K, D. R omits.

988 noght. R: ner. K: nat. D: nouʒt.

996 hedes. So K. R, D omit.

1000-01 alpha^A . . . locirs^L. R: In the interlinear space above each word-for-a-letter, the"corresponding" Latin letters have been written by what might be a second scribe. We have attempted to replicate the appearance of this in our text. See explanatory note to lines 1001-02.

1058-59 fractione. So K, D. R: fraccione.

1079 scelera. So K, D. R: celera.

1089 men. So K, D. R omits.

1091 convenable. R: cognable. K, D: covenable.

1111 And Seynt Poul was a fisician. R omits. Supplied from D, p. 50. K: and that holy man saynt Poule was a phesycyen.

1142 Port. So K, D. R: Por.

1161 go. R: inserted above the line.

1164 the Lay. So K, D. R: delay.

1231 as. So K, D. R: and.

1240 they. So K. R omits. D: þei.

Virgyne. So D. R omits. K: virgyn.

1248 sorceryes. R: sesaryse, corrected to sesaryie. K: sorcery. D: sorsery.

1261 sight. So D. R: light. K: syght.

1268 noght on. R: an illegible word has been canceled between noght and on.

1269 so. So K. R: so so. D omits.

1274 and in the. R: and in the and in the.

1302 on. So K, D. R omits.

1327 turned. R: turnd. K: tourned. D: yturned.

1329 hit. R: hit hit.

1362 drynketh₂. R: drynkeþ wyn.

1369 party. So K, D. R: partly.

1371-74 See textual note to lines 1000-01.

1376 two. So K. R: tw. D: twey.

1377 men. R: me. K, D omit.

yogh. R: youh. K: zowx. D: ʒoghe.

1388 Gret. R: greet. K omits. D: Grete.

1393 Trapasond. R: Tapasond. K, D: Trapazonde.

1423 nynthe. R: nythe. K, D: ix.

degré. R: de inserted above the line.

1447 so. So K, D. R: se.

dide. So D. R: dude. K: dyd.

1453 to. R: inserted above the line.

1460 hit. R: his, with a t written above. K, D: it.

1468 yer₁. R: inserted above the line.

1482 lordes. So K. R: lordes lordes. D: lordis.

1491 beth ofte. R: beth good we ofte.

1501 that hit. R: that is hit.

1508 ther. R: ther is.

1513 a mas. So K. R: Amas. D: a masse. See explanatory note.

1515 adamaundes. R: adaundes. K: adamande. D: adamaunde.

1608 kyng. R: and maketh theron a gret blessyng and then the kyng. Phrase repeated because of eyeskip.

1611 kyng. So D. R: kyng and. K: kinge.

1612 y-do. R: y-do &.

1674 they. So K. R omits. D: þei.

1687-1778 Corresponding section missing in K.

1697 degreez. So D. R: the degreez.

1700 And. So D. R: of.

1717 fro. So D. R: for.

1744 he₂. So D. R: he he.

1760 another. R: another compas.

1775-76 whiche beth y-clepid clymates. And these cuntreez that Y spake of beth not in these clymates. R omits; supplied from D, p. 82.

1839 strangly. R: stranly. K: worow. D: worry. D (p. 85) cites other versions that read swolewe.

1860 hundred. R omits. K: iii.c. D: CCC. The 300 prayers referred to immediately after (line 1862) suggest the word "hundred" has been mistakenly omitted here.

1883 that₁. So K, D. R: the.

1893 of. So K, D. R omits.

1921 And. R: And that.

1934 soules. So K, D. R: soul.

1935 soules₁. So K. R: soul. D: soulis.

1936 that. So K, D. R: tha.

1939 and. R: an. K, D: and may.

1971 as₁. So K, D. R: as also.

1978 sege. So K, D. R: se.

1992 emperouris table. So D. R: emperour is a table. K: emperours table.

2018 the. So K, D. R: the the.

2033 4. R omits. K: forth. D: ferþe.

2048 he. So K, D. R: they.

2078 ther. R: þ, with er curl partially obscured by otiose stroke.

2089 also. R: alos. K, D omit.

2102 berynge. R: be g. Letters illegible, supplied from K, p. 66. D omits.

2109 they₁. R: they wel.

2120 byfore crieth. R: byfore hem maketh pees and then tho men crieth.

2126 earis. R: here (on fol. 68r) and at line 2134 (fol. 68v) earis has been inserted in a different hand, perhaps over an erasure.

philosophere. R: philophere. K: phylosopher. D: philosofir.

2134 earis. See textual note to line 2126 (earis).

2173 fire. R: faire. K: fyre. D: fyr.

2240 Y. R: he. Emended to keep the first person consistent within the Khan's speech.

2250-51 in Bethleem. In the lond of Corasen. R: Punctuation of the manuscript overtly makes one phrase of the lines, which makes no sense.

2254 men of. So K, D. R: men.

2279 to com fro. R omits. Supplied from K, p. 72. D: to come doun fro.

2294 Port. So K, D. R omits.

2299 and. So K, D. R omits.

2331 unto. R omits. K:(p. 74) reads fro high Ermony unto the wyldrnes of ynde the lesse (p. 74). D: fro highe ermonye unto the wildernesse of ynde the lasse. In both, the lasse clearly refers to ynde the lasse rather than Ermony theLasse, as our manuscript would suggest. A less extreme emendation, in keeping with the sense of R, has been preferred here.

2428 playn. So D. R omits. K: pleyne.

2441 goold. R: goold by.

2461 children. So D. R: ch, with dots underneath indicating it was to be crossed out. K: childre.

2487-88 and hys welles, and he dyd. Supplied from K, p. 80; unreadable in R. D: and his wellis. And he hadde.

2591 and. R: and and.

2624 loveth₁. R: loveþ hym.

2685-2769 men of the countré . . . the religyous cutte. R omits (missing folio); text supplied from K, pp. 88-91.

2769 the flessh. R: with the flesh. We have emended to make the additional material from K grammatical (see textual note to lines 2685-2769).

2771 flieth. R: fleith. K: flye. D: fleeþ.

2777 is. So K, D. R: his.

2805 haveth. So D. R: and haveth. K: have.

2815 grace. So K, D. R omits.

2837 yer. R: yer and for as moche.

2856-57 to His joy . . . God withoute ende. Amen. The manuscript lacks this passage which was on a missing final leaf; supplied from K, p. 93.