author
Sir John Mandeville
Long treated as a daring medieval traveler, this mysterious figure is now best known as the supposed author behind one of the Middle Ages' most popular books of marvels and far-off lands. The story is fascinating partly because the writer himself may have been invented.
4 Audiobooks
I viaggi di Gio. da Mandavilla, vol. 1
by Sir John Mandeville
The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight Which treateth of the way towards Hierusalem and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys
by Sir John Mandeville
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville
by Sir John Mandeville
I viaggi di Gio. da Mandavilla, vol. 2
by Sir John Mandeville
About the author
Probably active in the 14th century, Sir John Mandeville is the traditional name attached to The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, a hugely influential work written between about 1357 and 1371. The book presents itself as the firsthand account of an English knight journeying through the Holy Land, Asia, and other distant places.
Modern scholars generally treat Mandeville as a supposed or fictional author rather than a clearly identifiable historical traveler. Britannica describes him as the purported author of the work, and the book is widely understood to combine borrowed material from earlier travel writers with legends, religious lore, and imaginative storytelling.
Whatever the truth about the man, the book's impact was enormous. The Travels circulated widely in manuscript, was translated into many languages, and helped shape how medieval European readers imagined the wider world.