Why read The Book of Marvels and Travels?

Book cover of The Book of Marvels and Travels

Book description

'Another island in the Great Ocean has many sinful and malevolent women, who have precious gems in their eyes.'

In his Book of Marvels and Travels, Sir John Mandeville describes a journey from Europe to Jerusalem and on into Asia, and the many wonderful and monstrous peoples and practices in…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Book of Marvels and Travels as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Asa Simon Mittman

Author

This is the most important book people have never heard of. It was immensely popular in the Middle Ages – 300 manuscripts survive in nine languages (Beowulf, another monster tale, survives in one copy). The probably-fictional “John Mandeville, knight, though I am not worthy” sets out from England in 1332, travels the known world on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and continues all the way to India. He encounters wondrous places, people, and beasts. The book is fundamentally flawed, with rampant racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, sexism, and on, but this is why it matters. Mandeville was Columbus’s reading…

From Asa's list on The best books to explain the history of monsters.