https://www.amdigital.co.uk/primary-sources/medieval-travel-writing

Editorial Introduction by Dr Kim Phillips

(Department of History, University of Auckland)

This new collection from Adam Matthew Digital presents manuscripts of some of the most important works of European travel writing from the later medieval period. The chief focus is on journeys to central Asia and the Far East, including accounts of travel to Mongolia, Persia, India, China and South-East Asia. The collection also includes a number of important accounts of travels to or through the Holy Land although in this it makes no claims to full or even broad coverage: a separate collection, covering crusading and pilgrimage narratives, would be required for that. It features a number of medieval maps such as the famous ‘Beatus’ and ‘Psalter’ maps, individual manuscript illuminations, and some modern translations of key travel texts. It should become an indispensable source for scholars of medieval travel, geography, exploration, trade, literature, and the new field of medieval postcolonial studies.

The travel texts gathered here cover some of the most widely-read and influential prose works of the late Middle Ages, notably the books of Marco Polo and ‘Sir John Mandeville’ but also important items by authors whose names are now less well-known to non-specialists such as John of Plano Carpini and Odoric of Pordenone. The works of missionaries William of Rubruck, John of Monte Corvino, Andrew of Perugia, Ricold de Monte Croce, Jordanus of Severac, and John de Cora, the ambassador Gonzalez de Clavijo, the merchant Nicolò de Conti, the enslaved Johann (or Hans) Schiltberger, the popular treatise of Hayton (or Hetoum) of Armenia and the possibly fictional travelogue of Johannes Witte de Hese are all represented. There are over 20 copies of the Letter of Prester John, 15 of Marco Polo’s Divisament dou monde in Franco-Italian, Court French, Venetian and Latin, and around 50 copies of ‘Mandeville’s’ Book in its French, German, Italian, Latin and Middle English versions. While the emphasis is on manuscripts held in British libraries the collection also includes a number of items from Austrian, French, German and Swiss holdings, thus making some relatively inaccessible works available to students and scholars of the English-speaking world.

There are many reasons why the works gathered here deserve our attention. As will be discussed in my essay, ‘Travel Writing Studies’ is a speedily-growing field which attracts the attention of historians, literary scholars, anthropologists, geographers and representatives of many other disciplines, yet medieval travel writing is often misinterpreted. Postcolonial studies and theories of ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ derived from Continental philosophy and psychoanalysis supply the interpretative modes which dominate readings of early modern and modern travel writing and such approaches are often similarly applied to medieval travel narratives. While these may offer suitable analytical frameworks for application to certain works, they are not appropriate in every case. Closer attention to the content of medieval travel literature and the contexts (social, cultural, political, economic) within which they were produced will enable medievalist scholars from a range of disciplines to develop more period-specific frameworks for this literature and it is hoped that this collection of sources may aid in that endeavour.

‘Medieval Travel Writing Studies’ will however be hindered in its development until more of the key texts are available in modern editions with scholarly translations. There is a good deal of work to be done. Editions of all and translations of most of the items are available, but in many cases new work is desperately needed. Giambattista Ramusio, Samuel Purchas, Richard Hakluyt and Luke Wadding began the process of collating and publishing versions of medieval travel writings from the mid-sixteenth century to early seventeenth centuries, and from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century Sir Henry Yule, Anastasius van den Wyngaert, A. C. Moule and Paul Pelliot, Christopher Dawson, and various editors for the Hakluyt Society produced important translations and editions. These are still essential reading for scholars in the field, but many are now in need of new treatments. While the books of John of Plano Carpini, Marco Polo, Ricold de Monte Croce, ‘Sir John Mandeville’ and Johannes Witte de Hese all exist in excellent recent editions, many medieval travel authors are relatively neglected. The Relatio of Odoric of Pordenone, for one, cries out for a new edition and English translation, given its wide circulation in manuscript form (with around 111 manuscripts surviving) and evident impact on medieval readers It was twice translated into French – by John le Long and Jean de Vignay – and was one of the two chief sources for the Book of ‘Sir John Mandeville’. Moreover, for English-language students many of the existing editions, with their valuable scholarly apparatus in Italian, German and French, are of limited utility. Even The Letter of Prester John – not strictly speaking an item of travel literature but nonetheless of vital importance for its influence on later medieval ideas about Asia – lacks a modern edition. Readers must go to Friedrich Zarnke’s 1879 edition with commentary in German, and will search in vain for a full English translation that incorporates and explains each of the major interpolations.

The present paucity of adequate or accessible editions of certain medieval travel texts means that many (possibly most) students of medieval studies reach the end of their studies without ever having read some of the most important and popular works circulating in late medieval European culture. If the present collection of manuscripts is of any aid to future editors and translators in the production of accessible texts for students and scholars then it will have served its purpose well.

©Copyright 2007-8 Adam Matthew Digital.