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GEOFFREY DE MANDEVILLE (d. 1144)
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See also:GEOFFREY DE See also:MANDEVILLE (d. 1144)
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' MANDEVILLE, JEHAN DE (" See also:Sir See also:
It is in fact beyond reasonable doubt that the travels were in large part compiled by a See also:Liege physician, known as Johains a 1e Barbe or Jehan a la Barbe, otherwise Jehan de Bourgogne
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The See also:evidence of this is in a modernized See also:extract quoted by the Liege See also:herald, See also: Dr J . Vogels communicated it in 1884 to Mr E . W . B . See also:Nicholson, who wrote on it in the See also:Academy of See also:April 12, 1884 . 2 See Dr G . F . See also:Warner's edition (See also:Roxburghe See also:Club), p . 38 . In the See also:Bull. de l'Institut archeologique Liegeois, iv . (186o), p . 171, M . Ferd . Henaux quotes the passage from " MSS. de la Bibliothc que publique de Liege, a 1'Universite, no . 36o, fol . 118," but the MS. is not in the 1875 printed See also:catalogue of the University Library, which has no Oldstatement, and added that the author lodged at a See also:hostel called " al See also:hoste Henkin Levo ": this MS. gave the physician's name as "Johains de Bourgogne dit See also:ale barbe," which doubtless conveys its See also:local form . There is no contemporary English mention of any English knight named Jehan de Mandeville, nor are the arms said to have been on the Liege See also:tomb like any known Mandeville arms . But Dr G . F . Warner has ingeniously suggested that de Bourgogne may be a certain Johan de Bourgoyne, who was pardoned by See also:parliament on the loth of See also:August 1321 for having taken part in the attack on the Despensers, but whose See also:pardon was revoked in May 1322, the year in which " Mandeville " professes to have left England . And it should now be added that among the persons similarly pardoned on the recommendation of the same nobleman was a Johan Mangevilayn, whose name appears closely related to that of "de Mandeville"3—which is merely a later form of "de Magneville." Mangeuilain occurs in See also:Yorkshire as See also:early as 16 See also:Hen . I . (See also:Pipe See also:Roll See also:Soc., xv . 40), but is very rare, and (failing evidence of any See also:place named Mangeville) seems to be merely a variant spelling of Magnevillain . The meaning may be simply " Magneville," de Magneville; but the See also:family of a 14th See also:century See also:bishop of See also:Nevers were called both "Mandevilain " and " de Mandevilain "—where Mandevilain seems a derivative place-name, meaning the Magneville or Mandeville See also:district . In any case it is clear that the name "'de Mandeville " might be suggested to de Bourgogne by that of his See also:fellow-See also:culprit Mangevilayn, and it is even possible that the two fled to England together, were in Egypt together, met again at Liege, and shared in the compilation of the Travels . Whether after the See also:appearance of the Travels either de Bourgogne or " Mangevilayn " visited England is very doubtful . St Albans Abbey had a See also:sapphire See also:ring, and See also:Canterbury a crystal See also:orb, said to have been given by Mandeville; but these might have been sent from Liege, and it will appear later that the Liege physician possessed and wrote about See also:precious stones . St Albans also had a See also:legend that a ruined See also:marble tomb of Mandeville (represented See also:cross-legged and in See also:armour, with See also:sword and See also:shield) once stood in the abbey; this may be true of "Mangevilayn " or it may be a mere myth . It is a little curious that the name preceding Mangevilayn in the See also:list of persons pardoned is " Johan le See also:Barber." Did this suggest to de Bourgogne the See also:alias " a le Barbe," or was that only a Liege See also:nickname ? See also:Note also that the arms on Mandeville's tomb were See also:borne by the Tyrrells of Hertfordshire (the See also:county in which St Albans lies); for of course the See also:crescent on the See also:lion's See also:breast is only the " difference " indicating a second son . Leaving this question, there remains the equally complex one whether the book contains any facts and knowledge acquired by actual travels and See also:residence in the See also:East . Possibly it may, but only as a small portion of the See also:section which treats of the Holy Land and the ways of getting thither, of Egypt, and in See also:general of the See also:Levant . The See also:prologue, indeed, points almost exclusively to the Holy Land as the subject of the work . The mention of more distant regions comes in only towards the end of this prologue, and (in a manner) as an afterthought . By far the greater part of these more distant travels, extending in fact from See also:Trebizond to See also:Hormuz, India, the See also:Malay See also:Archipelago, and China, and back again to western Asia; has been appropriated from the narrative of See also:Friar See also:Odoric (written in 1330) . These passages, as served up by Mandeville, are almost always, indeed, swollen with interpolated particulars, usually of an extravagant kind, whilst in no few cases the writer has failed to understand the passages which he adopts from Odoric and professes to give as his own experiences . Thus (p . 209),4 where Odoric has given a most French MS. of Mandeville at See also:present . It was probably See also:lent out and not returned . The de Mandevilles, earls of Essex, were originally styled de Magneville, and See also:Leland, in his See also:Comm. de Script . Britt . (CDV), calls our Mandeville himself " Joannes Magnovillanus, alias Mandeville." 4 See also:Page indications like this refer to passages in the 1866 reissue of Halliwell's edition, as being probably the most ready of See also:access . curious and veracious See also:account of the See also:Chinese See also:custom of employing tame cormorants to catch See also:fish, the cormorants are converted by Mandeville into " little beasts called loyres (layre, B), which are taught to go into the See also:water " (the word loyre being apparently used here for "See also:otter," lutra, for which the Provencal is lurk or loiria) . At a very early date the coincidence of Mandeville's stories with those of Odoric was recognized, insomuch that a MS. of Odoric which is or was in the chapter library at See also:Mainz begins with the words: Incipit Ilinerarius fidelis fratris Odorici socii Militis Mendavil per Indian; licet hic [read ilk] prius et alter posterius peregrinationem suam descripsit . At a later day Sir T . See also:Herbert calls Odoric " travelling See also:companion of our Sir John "; and See also:Purchas, with most perverse injustice, whilst calling Mandeville, next to See also:Polo, " if next . . . the greatest Asian traveller that ever the world had," insinuates that Odoric's See also:story was stolen from Mandeville's .
Mandeville himself is crafty enough, at least in one passage, to anticipate See also:criticism by suggesting the See also:probability of his having travelled with Odoric (see p
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282 and below)
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Much, again, of Mandeville's See also:matter, particularly in See also:Asiatic See also:geography and history, is taken bodily from the Historiae Orientis of Hetoum, an Armenian of princely family, who.became a See also: 250, on Tatar habits of eating, with Plano Carpini, pp . 639–64o; Mandeville, p . 231, on the titles borne on the See also:seals of the Great See also:Khan, with Plano Carpini, p . 715, &c . The account of Prester John is taken from the famous See also:Epistle of that imaginary potentate, which was so widely diffused in the 13th century, and created that renown which made it See also:incumbent on every traveller in Asia to find some new See also:tale to tell of him . Many fabulous stories, again, of monsters, such as See also:cyclopes, sciapodes, hippopodes, monoscelides, anthropophagi, and men whose heads did grow beneath their shoulders, of the See also:phoenix and the weeping See also:crocodile, such as See also:Pliny has collected, are introduced here and there, derived no doubt from him, See also:Solinus, the bestiaries, or the Speculum maturate of Vincent de Beauvais . And interspersed, especially in the chapters about the Levant, are the stories and legends that were retailed to every See also:pilgrim, such as the legend of See also:Seth and the grains of See also:paradise from which See also:grew the See also:wood of the cross, that of the See also:shooting of old See also:Cain by See also:Lamech, that of the See also:castle of the See also:sparrow-See also:hawk (which appears in the tale of Melusina), those of the origin of the See also:balsam See also:plants at Matariya, of the See also:dragon of See also:Cos, of the See also:river See also:Sabbation, &c . But all these passages have also been verified as substantially occurring in See also:Barrois's French MS . Nouv . Acq . See also:Franc . 4515 in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, mentioned below (of A.D . 1371), cited B, and in that numbered xxxix. of the See also:Grenville collection (See also:British Museum), which See also:dates probably from the early part of the 15th century, cited G . 1 Viz. in D'Avezac's ed. in torn. iv. of Rec. de voyages et de memoires pub. by the Soc. de Geog., 1839 . Even in that part of the book which might be supposed to represent some genuine experience there are the plainest traces that another work has been made use of, more or less—we might almost say as a framework to fill tip . This is the itinerary of the See also:German knight Wilhelm von Boldensele, written in 1336 at the See also:desire of See also:Cardinal Talleyrand de See also:Perigord.' A cursory comparison of this with Mandeville leaves no doubt that the latter has followed its See also:thread, though digressing on every See also:side, and too often eliminating the singular good sense of the German traveller . We may indicate as examples Boldensele's account of See also:Cyprus (Mandeville, p . 28 and p. so), of See also:Tyre and the coast of See also:Palestine (Mandeville, 29, 30, 33, 34), of the See also:journey from See also:Gaza to Egypt (34), passages about See also:Babylon of Egypt (40), about See also:Mecca (42), the general account of Egypt (45), the pyramids (52), some of the wonders of Cairo, such as the slave-See also:market, the chicken-hatching stoves, and the apples of paradise, i.e. plantains (49), the Red Sea (57), the See also:convent on Sinai (58, 6o), the account of the church of the Holy See also:Sepulchre (74–76), &c . There is, indeed, only a small residuum of the book to which genuine See also:character, as containing the experiences of the author, can possibly be attributed . Yet, as has been intimated, the borrowed stories are frequently claimed as such experiences . In addition to those already mentioned, he alleges that he had witnessed the curious See also:exhibition of the See also:garden of transmigrated souls (described by Odoric) at Cansay, i.e . Hangchow-fu (211) . He and his See also:fellows with their valets had remained fifteen months in service with the emperor of See also:Cathay in his wars against the king of Manzi—Manzi, or See also:Southern China, having ceased to be a See also:separate See also:kingdom some seventy years before the time referred to . But the most notable of these false statements occurs in his See also:adoption from Odoric of the story of the Valley Perilous (282) . 
This is, in its original form, apparently founded on real experiences of Odoric viewed through a haze of excitement and superstition . Mandeville, whilst swelling the wonders of the tale with a variety of extravagant touches, appears to safeguard himself from the reader's possible See also:discovery that it was stolen by the interpolation: " And some of our fellows accorded to enter, and some not . So there were with us two worthy men, Friars Minor, that were of See also:Lombardy, who said that if any man would enter they would go in with us . And when they had said so, upon the gracious See also:trust of See also:God and of them, we caused See also:mass to be sung, and made every man to be shriven and houselled; and then we entered, fourteen persons; but at our going out we were but nine," &c . In referring to this passage it is only See also:fair to recognize that the description (though the See also:suggestion of the greatest part exists in Odoric) displays a good deal of imaginative See also:power; and there is much in the account of See also:Christian's passage through the Valley of the See also:Shadow of Death, in See also:Bunyan's famous See also:allegory, which indicates a possibility that John Bunyan may have read and remembered this See also:episode either in Mandeville or in See also:Hakluyt's Odoric . Nor does it follow that the whole work is borrowed or fictitious . Even the great Moorish traveller See also:Ibn Batuta, accurate and veracious in the See also:main, seems—in one part at least of his narrative—to invent experiences; and in such See also:works as those of See also:Jan See also:van Hees and See also:Arnold von Harff we have examples of pilgrims to the Holy Land whose narratives begin apparently in sober truth, and gradually pass into flourishes of fiction and extravagance . So in Mandeville also we find particulars not yet traced to other writers, and which may therefote be provisionally assigned either to the writer's own experience or to knowledge acquired by colloquial intercourse in the East . It is difficult to decide on the character of his statements as to See also:recent See also:Egyptian history . In his account of that country (pp . 37, 38) though the See also:series of the Comanian (i.e. of the Bahri See also:Mameluke) sultans is borrowed from Hetoum down to the See also:accession of Melechnasser, i.e . Malik al-Nasir (Nasir ud-din Mahommed), who came first to the See also:throne in 1293, Mandeville appears to speak from his own knowledge when he adds that this " Melechnasser reigned long and governed wisely." In fact, though twice 2 It is found in the See also:Thesaurus of Canisius (1604), v. pt. ii. p . 95, and in the ed. of the same by See also:Basnage (1725), tv . 337 . displaced in the early part of his See also:life, Malik Nasir reigned till 1341, a duration unparalleled in See also:Mahommedan Egypt, whilst we are told that during the last See also:thirty years of his reign Egypt See also:rose to a high See also:pitch of See also:wealth and prosperity . Mandeville, however, then goes on to say that his eldest son, Melechemader, was chosen to succeed; but this See also:prince was caused privily to be slain by his See also:brother, who took the kingdom under the name of Melechmadabron . " And he was Soldan when I departed from those countries." Now Malik Nasir Mahommed was followed in See also:succession by no less than eight of his sons in thirteen years, the first three of whom reigned in aggregate only a few months . The names mentioned by Mandeville appear to represent those of the fourth and See also:sixth of the eight, viz . See also:Salt' 'Imad ud-din Isma`iI, and Mozaffar (Saif ud-din IJajjl); and these the statements of Mandeville do not See also:fit . On several occasions Arabic words are given, but are not always recognizable, owing perhaps to the carelessness of copyists in such matters . Thus, we find (p . 50) the names (not satisfactorily identified) of the wood, See also:fruit and See also:sap of the balsam plant; (p . 99) of See also:bitumen, " alkatran " (al-Katr(1n); (p . 168) of the three different kinds of See also:pepper (long pepper, See also:black pepper and white pepper) as sorbotin, fulful and bano or bauo (fulful is the common Arabic word for pepper; the others have not been satisfactorily explained) .
But these, and the particulars of his narrative for which no See also:literary See also:sources have yet been found, are too few to constitute a See also:proof of personal experience
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Mandeville, again, in some passages shows a correct See also:idea of the form of the See also:earth, and of position in See also:latitude ascertained by observation of the See also:pole See also:star; he knows that there are See also:antipodes, and that if See also:ships were sent on voyages of discovery they might See also:sail round the world
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And he tells a curious story, which he had heard in his youth, how a worthy man did travel ever east-See also: An early printed Latin See also:translation made from the French has been already quoted, but four others, unprinted, have been discovered by Dr J . Vogels.3 They exist in eight MSS., of which seven are in Great See also:Britain, while the eighth was copied by a monk of See also:Abingdon; probably, therefore, all these unprinted translations were executed in this country . From one of them, according to Dr Vogels,° an English version was made which has never been printed and is now extant only in See also:free abbreviations, contained in two 15th century MSS. in the Bodleian Library, See also:Oxford—MS. e Museo 116, and MS . See also:Rawlinson D . 99: the former, which is the better, is in Midland See also:dialect, and may possibly have belonged to the Augustinian priory of St Osyth in Essex, while the latter is in Southern dialect . The first English translation direct from the French was made (at least as early as the beginning of the 15th century) from a MS. of which many pages were lost.5 See also:Writing of the name Califfes 1 See also:Die Quellen See also:fur die Reisebeschreibung des Johann von Mandeville, Inaugural-Dissertation . . . See also:Leipzig (See also:Berlin, 1888) . This was revised and enlarged as " Untersuchungen fiber Johann von Mandeville and die Quellen seiner Reisebeschreibung," in the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft far Erdkunde zu Berlin, Bd . 23, Heft 3 U . 4 (No . 135, 136) . 2 In his edition (Roxburghe Club) . 3 Die ungedruckten lateinischen Versionen Mandeville's (See also:Crefeld, 1886) . Ilandschriftliche Untersuchungen fiber die englische Version Mandeville's (Crefeld, 1891), p . 46 . 6 Dr Vogels controverts these positions, arguing that the first English version from the French was the See also:complete See also:Cotton text, and that the defective English copies were made from a defective English MS . His supposed evidences of the priority of the Cotton text equally consist with its being a later revision, and for Roys Its(Khalif), the author says (Roxburghe Club ed., p. i 8) that it is tant a dire come roi (s) . Il y soleil auoir v. soudans—" as much as to say king . There used to be 5 sultans." In the defective French MS. a page ended with See also:fly so; then came a See also:gap, and the next page went on with part of the description of Mount Sinai, Et est See also:celle vallee See also:mull froide (ibid. p . 32) . Consequently the corresponding English version has " That ys to say amonge hem Roys Its and this vale ys ful colde " ! All English printed texts before 1725, and See also:Ashton's 1887 edition, follow these defective copies, and in only two known MSS. has the lacuna been detected and filled up . One of them is the British Museum MS . See also:Egerton 1982 (See also:Northern dialect, about 1410-1420 ?), in which, according to Dr Vogels, the corresponding portion has been borrowed from that English version which had already been made from the Latin . The other is in the British Museum MS . Cotton See also:Titus C. xvi . (Midland dialect, about 1410-1420 ?), representing a' text completed, and revised throughout, from the French, though not by a competent See also:hand . The Egerton text, edited by Dr G . F . Warner, has been printed by the Roxburghe Club, while the Cotton text, first printed in 1725 and 1727, is in modern reprints the current English version . That none of the forms of the English version can be from the same hand which wrote the original is made patent by their glaring errors of translation, but the Cotton text asserts in the preface that it was made by Mandeville himself, and this assertion was till lately taken on trust by almost all modern historians of English literature . The words of the original " je eusse cost livret mis en latin . mais . . . je See also:Fay mis. en romant " were mistranslated as if " je eusse " meant " I had " instead of " I should have," and then (whether of fraudulent See also:intent or by the See also:error of a copyist thinking to See also:supply an accidental omission) the words were added " and translated it a3en out of Frensche into Englyssche." Matzner (Altenglische Sprachproben, I., ii., 154-155) seems to have been the first to show that the current English text cannot possibly have been made by Mandeville himself . Of the original French there is no satisfactory edition, but Dr Vogels has undertaken a See also:critical text, and Dr Warner has added to his Egerton English text the French of a British Museum MS. with variants from three others . It remains to mention certain other works bearing the name of Mandeville or de Bourgogne . MS . Add . C . 28o in the Bodleian appends to the " Travels " a See also:short French life of St See also:Alban of See also:Germany, the author of which calls himself John Mandivill[e], knight, formerly of the town of St Alban, and says he writes to correct an impression prevalent among his countrymen that there was no other See also:saint of the name: this life is followed by part of a French herbal . To Mandeville (by whom de Bourgogne is clearly meant) d'Oultremouse 6 ascribes a Latin " lappidaire See also:salon I'oppinion des Indois," from which he quotes twelve passages, stating that the author (whom he calls knight, See also:lord of Montfort, of Castelperouse, and of the isle of Campdi) had been " baillez en See also:Alexandria " seven years, and had been presented by a Saracen friend with some See also:fine jewels which had passed into d'Oultremouse's own See also:possession: of this Lapidaire, a French version, which seems to have been completed after 1479, has been several times printed.' A MS. of Mandeville's travels offered for See also:sale in 1862 8 is said to have been divided into five books: (1) the travels, (2) de la forme de la terre et comment et See also:par quelle maniere elle fut faite, (3) de la forme del ciel, (4) des herbes selon See also:les yndois et les philosophes par de la, and (5) ly lapidaire—while the cataloguer supposed Mandeville to have been the author of a concluding piece entitled La Venianche de nostre Signeur Ihesu-Crist fayte par See also:Vespasian ft del empereur de Romme at comment lozeph daramathye fu deliures de la prizon . From the treatise on herbs a passage is quoted asserting it to have been composed in 1357 in See also:honour of the author's natural lord, Edward, king of England . This date is corroborated by the See also:title of king of See also:Scotland given to Edward, who had received from See also:Baliol the surrender of the See also:crown and kingly dignity on the loth of See also:January 1356, but on the 3rd of See also:October 1357 released King See also:David and made See also:peace with Scotland: unfortunately we are not told whether the treatise contains the author's name, and, if so, what name . See also:Tanner (Bibliotheca) alleges that Mandeville wrote several books on medicine, and among the Ashmolean MSS. in the Bodleian are a medical See also:receipt by John de Magna See also:Villa (No . 1479), an alchemical receipt by him (No . 1407), and another alchemical receipt by Johannes de Villa Magna (No . 1441), in the defective English MSS. he has only offered a laboured and improbable explanation . 6 Stanislas Bormans, Introduction to d'Oultremouse's Chronicle, pp. lxxxix., xc . ; see also Warner's edition of the Travels, p. See also:xxxv . The ascription is on if . 5 and 6 of Le Tresorier de philosophie naturele des pierres precieuses, an unprinted work by d'Oultremouse in MS . Fonds See also:francais 12326 of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris . The passage about Alexandria is on f . 81 . ' See L . See also:Pannier, Les Lapidaires francais, pp . 189-204: not knowing d'Oultremouse's evidence, he has discredited the attribution to Mandeville and doubted the existence of a Latin original . 8 Description . dune collection . . . d'anciens manuscrits . . . reunis par les soins de M . J . Techener, pt. i . (Paris, 1862), p . 159 (referred to by Pannier, pp . 193-194) . Finally, de Bourgogne wrote under his own name a treatise on the See also:plague,' extant in Latin, French and English texts, and in Latin and English abridgments . Herein he describes himself as Johannes de Burgundia, otherwise called cum Barba, See also:citizen of Liege and professor of the art of medicine; says that he had practised See also:forty years and had been in Liege in the plague of 1365; and adds that he had previously written a treatise on the cause of the plague, according to the indications of See also:astrology (beginning See also:Deus deorum), and another on distinguishing pestilential diseases (beginning Cum nimium propter instans tempts epidimiale) . " Burgundia " is sometimes corrupted into " Burdegalia," and in English translations of the abridgment almost always appears as " Burdews " (See also:Bordeaux) or the like . MS . Rawlinson D . 251 (15th century) in the Bodleian also contains a large number of English medical receipts, headed " Practica phisicalia Magistri Johannis de Burgundia." See further Dr G . F . Warner's See also:article in the See also:Dictionary of See also:National See also:Biography for a comprehensive account, and for See also:bibliographical references; Ulysse Chevalier's Repertoire des sources historiques du moyen age for references generally; and the Zeitschr. f. See also:cell . Philologie II., i . 126, for an edition and translation, by Dr Whitley See also:Stokes, of Fingin O'See also:Mahony's Irish version of the Travels . (E . W . B . N.; H . |
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