Везде
John Mandeville’s Ideal Sovereign
Table of contents
Annotation Estimate Publication content
References Comments
Share
QR
Metrics
John Mandeville’s Ideal Sovereign
Annotation
PII
S207987840031615-5-1
DOI
10.18254/S207987840031615-5
Publication type
Article
Status
Published
Authors
Olga Togoeva 
Affiliation: Institute of World History RAS
Address: Russian Federation, Moscow
Edition
Volume 15 Issue 6 (140)
Abstract

The article is devoted to the “Travel Book” written by John Mandeville in the middle of the 14th century and remained extremely popular over the next few centuries. The author of the article describes the handwritten and first-printed traditions of the existence of the “Book”, dwells on the circumstances of its origin, on the problem of its authorship and on the content of its two parts. She comes to the conclusion that the “Travel Book” was not a typical medieval travelogue or even a chorography, but rather belonged to the genre of “mirrors of princes”. In particular, John Mandeville dwelt on the problem of what an ideal sovereign should be, what personal qualities he should possess and what kind of state structure he should strive for. An important difference between the “Travel Book” and the numerous “mirrors of princes” of the 14th — 15th centuries was its author’s appeal to very far from European models — to the experience of Eastern and Asian (partly fictional) countries, whose rulers seemed ideal to John Mandeville. As a result, he constantly returned to the idea of a new Crusade, which remained extremely popular in the middle of the 14th century, but criticized it on the grounds that Europeans should not plan the conquest of foreign lands (even the Holy Land) without solving their own internal — primarily moral — problems.

Keywords
Medieval literature, travelogue, “mirror of prince”, travel, the Holy Land, the Crusades, the Middle East, Asia, Medieval States, the ideal ruler
Received
30.04.2024
Publication date
31.07.2024
Number of characters
37505
Number of purchasers
7
Views
122
Readers community rating
0.0 (0 votes)
Cite Download pdf 200 RUB / 1.0 SU

To download PDF you should pay the subscribtion

Full text is available to subscribers only
Subscribe right now
Only article and additional services
Subscription benefits
200 RUB / 1.0 SU
Whole issue and additional services
Subscription benefits
820 RUB / 10.0 SU
All issues and additional services for 2024
Subscription benefits
5000 RUB / 50.0 SU

References

1. Bessmertnyj Yu. L. Kazus Bertrana de Borna, ili «Khotyat li rytsari vojny?» // Kazus. Individual'noe i unikal'noe v istorii—1999 / pod red. Yu. L. Bessmertnogo i M. A. Bojtsova. Vyp. 2. M., 1999. S. 131—147.

2. Ernazarov K. F. «Korolyu nikogda ne sleduet vstupat' v boj»: vopros o lichnom uchastii pravitelya v srazhenii v proizvedeniyakh Kristiny de Pizan // Srednie veka. 2023. Vyp. 84 (4). S. 89—110.

3. Kalmykova E. The Metaphors and Images of War in Medieval Monastic Writings // ISTORIYA. 2018. Vol. 9. Issue 9 (73). URL: https://history.jes.su/s207987840002478-4-1/ DOI: 10.18254/S0002478-4-1

4. Kin M. Rytsarstvo / per. I. A. Togoevoj. M., 2000.

5. Togoeva O. “And He Wore the Bones and Fur of a Wolf...”: the Concept of a Bad Ruler in the Treatises of John of Salisbury and Jean Petit // ISTORIYA. 2023. Vol. 14. Issue 7 (129). URL: https://history.jes.su/s207987840027238-0-1/ DOI: 10.18254/S207987840027238-0

6. Akbari S. C. The diversity of mankind in The Book of John Mandeville // Eastward Bound: Travel and Travellers, 1050—1550 / ed. by R. Allen. Manchester; N. Y., 2004. P. 156—176.

7. Bennett J. W. Mandeville’s Travels and the Anglo-French moment // Medium Aevum. 2006. T. 75. P. 273—292.

8. A Critical Companion to the “Mirrors of Princes” Literature / ed. by N.-L. Perret et S. Péquignot. Leiden; Boston, 2023.

9. Cruse M. “Pleasure in foreign things”: global entanglement in the Livre des merveilles du monde (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 2810) // Mediaevalia. 2020. T. 41. P. 217—236.

10. Deluz Ch. Introduction // Jean de Mandeville. Le livre des merveilles du monde / éd. critique par Ch. Deluz. P., 2000. P. 7—85.

11. Guéret-Laferté M. Jean de Mandeville ou la figure de l’hyperlecteur // Uns clers ait dit que chanson en ferait. Mélanges de langue, d’histoire et de littérature offerts à Jean-Charles Herbin / éd. par M.-G. Grossel, J.-P. Martin, L. Nys, M. Ott, F. Suard. Valenciennes, 2019. T. 1. P. 355—368.

12. Higgins I. M. Imagining Christendom from Jerusalem to Paradise: Asia in Mandeville’s Travels // Discovering New Worlds: Essays on Medieval Exploration and Imagination / ed. by S. D. Westrem. N. Y., 1991. P. 91—114.

13. Higgins I. M. Writing East: The ‘Travels’ of Sir John Mandeville. Philadelphia, 1997.

14. Jean de Mandeville. Le livre des merveilles du monde / éd. critique par Ch. Deluz. P., 2000.

15. Khanmohamadi S. A. In Light of Another’s Word. European Ethnography in the Middle Ages. Philadelphia, 2014.

16. Moseley Ch. The Metamorphoses of Sir John Mandeville // Yearbook of English Studies. 1974. Vol. 4. P. 5—25.

17. Moseley Ch. The Travels of Sir John Mandeville and the Moral Geography of the Medieval World // Geographies of Identity. 2015. T. 12/1. P. 1—12.

18. O’Doherty M. The Indies and the Medieval West. Thought, Report, Imagination. Turnhout, 2013.

19. Ormrod M. W. John Mandeville, Edward III, and the King of Inde // Chaucer Review. 2012. Vol. 46. P. 314—339.

20. Seymour M. C. The English Manuscripts of Mandeville’s Travels // Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions. 1966. T. IV (5). P. 167—210.

Comments

No posts found

Write a review
Translate