The Travels of Sir John Mandeville

The true identity of Sir John Mandeville is difficult to discern. The author describes himself as a knight of St Albans, a town in southeast England, who traveled across the world for over 30 years. However, the evident fictions in his text and the fact that there is no record of a John Mandeville in St Albans have led most historians to dismiss these claims. Who authored the text and where/if they traveled has been a consistent topic of debate.

One popular identification of the author comes from shortly after the text’s publication. The 14th-century French chronicler Jean d’Outremeuse claimed that a man named Jean de Bourgogne confessed to him on his deathbed that he was John Mandeville. Bourgogne allegedly claimed he had killed a man in England in 1322 and so fled the country, taking on the name of John Mandeville while he traveled over the world. Some scholars used this as evidence that d’Outremeuse himself was John Mandeville. Such claims are supported by the fact that d’Outremeuse was evidently involved in editing some editions of the text; that French was the first language the text was written in could also suggest a French author. However, either identity is ultimately unlikely.