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'Book of the Marvels of the World' (French: <i>Livre des Merveilles du Monde</i>) or 'Description of the World' (<i>Devisement du Monde</i>), in Italian <i>Il Milione</i> ('The Million') or <i>Oriente Poliano</i> and in English commonly called 'The Travels of Marco Polo', is a 13th-century travelogue.<br/><br/> It was recorded by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Marco Polo, describing Polo's travels through Asia between 1276 and 1291, and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan.
Jehan de Mandeville, translated as Sir John Mandeville, is the name claimed by the compiler of a singular book of supposed travels, written in Anglo-Norman French, and published between 1357 and 1371. By aid of translations into many other languages it acquired extraordinary popularity.<br/><br/> Despite the extremely unreliable and often fantastical nature of the travels it describes, it was used as a work of reference — Christopher Columbus, for example, was heavily influenced by both this work, as well as by Marco Polo's earlier 'Il Milione'.
'Book of the Marvels of the World' (French: Livre des Merveilles du Monde) or 'Description of the World' (Devisement du Monde), in Italian Il Milione ('The Million') or Oriente Poliano and in English commonly called 'The Travels of Marco Polo', is a 13th-century travelogue.<br/><br/> It was recorded by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Marco Polo, describing Polo's travels through Asia between 1276 and 1291, and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan.
Odoric of Pordenone, OFM (1286–1331), also known as Odorico Mattiussi or Mattiuzzi, was an Italian late-medieval Franciscan friar and missionary explorer. His account of his visit to China was an important source for the account of John Mandeville.<br/><br/> Many of the incredible reports in Mandeville have proven to be garbled versions of Odoric's eyewitness descriptions.<br/><br/> Seventy-three manuscripts of Odoric's narrative are known to exist in Latin, French and Italian: of these the most important, of about 1350, is in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.
Odoric of Pordenone, OFM (1286–1331), also known as Odorico Mattiussi or Mattiuzzi, was an Italian late-medieval Franciscan friar and missionary explorer. His account of his visit to China was an important source for the account of John Mandeville.<br/><br/> Many of the incredible reports in Mandeville have proven to be garbled versions of Odoric's eyewitness descriptions.<br/><br/> Seventy-three manuscripts of Odoric's narrative are known to exist in Latin, French and Italian: of these the most important, of about 1350, is in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.
Jehan de Mandeville, translated as Sir John Mandeville, is the name claimed by the compiler of a singular book of supposed travels, written in Anglo-Norman French, and published between 1357 and 1371. By aid of translations into many other languages it acquired extraordinary popularity. Despite the extremely unreliable and often fantastical nature of the travels it describes, it was used as a work of reference — Christopher Columbus, for example, was heavily influenced by both this work, as well as by Marco Polo's earlier 'Il Milione'.
Cotton plant as imagined and drawn by John Mandeville; 'There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungrie'.
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, written in 1356/7, became a very popular text, surpassing even the exploits of Marco Polo. The Travels described a journey to Constantinople, Palestine, and Egypt and further routes to Asia Minor, ending at the Great Khan of China. Pictured here is a knightly tournament held in Constantinople. Tournaments were chivalrous competitions based on the mêlée, a general combat where knights formed two competing sides and charged at each other. In the foreground we see a joust, a single contest between two knights. They are clothed in full armor and bearing weapons and shields. The competitor on the left is trying to unseat his opponent with his lance.
Ritual defloration, as pictured in the travels of Sir John Mandeville (1484 edition): 'Another isle is there, full fair and good and great, and full of people, where the custom is such, that the first night that they be married, they make another man to lie by their wives for to have their maidenhead: and therefore they take great hire and great thank'.
'In the forefront there is an oval, roofed oven with two openings containing pans for melting. Glassmakers are dipping the tips of their long pipes into the molten mass and are blowing containers of various sizes. To one side there is an extension for cooling the glass, while on the other side an assistant is adding fuel to the deep oven'. Excerpt from the commentary on this illustration
"Jehan de Mandeville", translated as "Sir John Mandeville", is the name claimed by the compiler of a singular book of supposed travels, written in Anglo-Norman French, and published between 1357 and 1371. By aid of translations into many other languages it acquired extraordinary popularity. Despite the extremely unreliable and often fantastical nature of the travels it describes, it was used as a work of reference — Christopher Columbus, for example, was heavily influenced by both this work and Marco Polo's Il Milione.