Mandeville

Mandeville, Jehan de, popularly called Sir John Mandeville, the name by which the compiler of a book of travels called himself. The book itself was in all probability originally in French, though there are early Latin editions. The first MS. mast have appeared between 1357 and 1372. The first English version was made early in the 15th century and was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1499, the French text having appeared in type in 1480. The compiler, who may have been a physician named Jehan de Bourgoigne, not only draws largely upon his imagination, but borrows the bulk of his matter from other works such as those of Friar Odoric (1330) and John of Piano Carpini, a Franciscan monk.