author
Johannes Schiltberger
b. 1380
Best known for a vivid medieval travel book, this Bavarian writer spent decades in captivity after the Battle of Nicopolis and turned those experiences into a rare firsthand record of Eurasia. His account still stands out for the sheer distance traveled and the window it opens onto the late medieval world.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born around 1380 near Lohhof in Bavaria, Johann Schiltberger was a German traveler and writer from a noble family. As a teenager, he joined the forces fighting the Ottomans and was captured at the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. According to major reference sources, he later spent many years in servitude and traveled through regions that now include parts of the Caucasus and Russia before eventually returning home.
Schiltberger is remembered for his Reisebuch ("Travel Book"), sometimes known in English as The Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger. Britannica describes it as an important record of medieval times, and that reputation comes from its unusual perspective: a captive observer moving across borders, courts, and cultures that many Western European readers of his era would never have seen.
Because so much of his fame rests on that one surviving travel narrative, details of his life are often given approximately, including his birth in 1380 and death around 1440. Even so, his work remains a valuable and engaging source for readers interested in medieval travel, warfare, and cross-cultural encounter.