The Travels of Sir Jean de Mandeville

The Travels of Sir Jean de Mandeville

Over the pilgrim trails to Jerusalem and its holy sites, the mysterious Jean de Mandeville, author of one of the most famous travelogues of the Middle Ages, next came to Egypt. From there, he is supposed to have continued with his expedition into the Middle East, to India, China, Africa, the island world of the Indian Ocean, and finally into increasingly exotic domains of the world. He claimed to have travelled over the course of 30 years, from 1322 to 1356, and in doing so saw regions, cultures, and wonders that no other western visitor before him caught a glimpse of. As a result, the descriptions of the land, each further and further removed from the known world, become more and more fantastical.

The Fascination of the Foreign

As fantastic as the The Travels of Sir Jean de Mandeville sounded, the account was just as successful. Whoever was really behind the mysterious pseudonym of Jean de Mandeville, who presented himself as an English knight, remains contested to this day. In any case, he came world famous as the author of a compiled travelogue written in French between 1357 and 1371. In doing so, he not only made use of his own, presumably realistic experiences, but also numerous sources from historiography and literature, e.g. the Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voragine, the Rhabanus Maurus, or the Arthurian legend.

A Unique Manuscript

This novel-like travelogue by the mysterious first-person narrator Jean de Mandeville can be found in manuscript Français 2810 of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in the famous Book of Wonders. On 168 pages, the text is divided into two columns with gorgeous miniatures in the style of the early 15th century. It is an outstanding testimonial to this great period of French illumination and was designed by three major miniaturists: the Master of Mazarine (49 miniatures), the Cité des Dames Master, and the Egerton Master (19 miniatures). They created fantastic scenery from new pictorial inventions, surrounded by fine ornamental gothic tendrils and with opulent gold on every page.

In the Possession of Nobles and Royals from the Beginning

The splendor of this jewel is reminiscent of a truly royal manuscript. It originated in Paris between January of 1410 and the end of 1412 at the behest of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. In 1413, he gifted the manuscript to his uncle Jean de Berry, whose coat of arms can be found in the manuscript. The magnificent edition of The Travels of Sir Jean de Mandeville passed through the hands of more famous owners until it reached King François I (1494–1547), whereby it found its place from then on in the royal library in Fontainebleau.