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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'.
George Psalmanazar claimed to be the first Formosan to visit Europe. For some years he convinced many in Britain, but was later revealed to be an impostor. He later became a theological essayist and a friend and acquaintance of Samuel Johnson and other noted figures of 18th-century literary London.<br/><br/> in 1704 Psalmanazar published a book entitled 'An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa', an island subject to the Emperor of Japan which purported to be a detailed description of Formosan customs, geography and political economy, but which was in fact a complete invention on Psalmanazar's part.<br/><br/> Psalmanazar's book also described the Formosan language and alphabet, which is significant for being an early example of a constructed language. His efforts in this regard were so convincing that German grammarians were including samples of his so-called "Formosan alphabet" in books of languages well into the 18th century, even after his larger imposture had been exposed.
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