roads; and in this way the whole interior of the city is laid out in squares like a chess‐board with such masterly precision that no description can do justice to it.
In this city there is such a multitude of houses and of people, both within the walls and without, that no one could count their number. Actually there are more people outside the walls in the suburbs than in the city itself. There is a suburb outside every gate, such that each one touches the neighbouring suburbs on either side. They extend in length for three or four miles. And in every suburb or ward, at about a mile’s distance from the city, there are many fine hostels which provide lodging for merchants coming from different parts: a particular hostel is assigned to every nation, as we might say one for the Lombards, another for the Germans, another for the French. Merchants and others come here on business in great numbers, both because it is the Khan’s residence and because it affords a profitable market. And the suburbs have as fine houses and mansions as the city, except of course for the Khan's palace. […]
You may take it for a fact that more precious and costly wares are imported into Khan‐balik than into any other city in the world. Let me give you particulars. All the treasures that come from India – precious stones, pearls, and other rarities – are brought here. So too are the choicest and costliest products of Cathay itself and every other province. This is on account of the Great Khan himself, who lives here, and of the lords and ladies and the enormous multitude of hotel‐keepers and other residents and of visitors who attend the courts held here by the Khan. That is why the volume and value of the imports and of the internal trade exceed those of any other city in the world. It is a fact that every day more than 1,000 cart‐loads of silk enter the city; for much cloth of gold and silk is woven here. Furthermore, Khan‐balik is surrounded by more than 200 other cities, near and far, from which traders come to it to sell and to buy.
IA4 ‘Sir John Mandeville’ (fl c.1350–60) from his Travels
The three preceding texts, all from the thirteenth century, have offered apparently eyewitness accounts of the wealth of the East, from Constantinople to China. However, the prevailing image of the wider world that held sway in medieval Europe was anything but factual. Legends of various sorts of monsters, people with one huge foot who move by hopping, people with faces in their chests, people with heads like dogs, none of which the traveller has actually seen but which he has been told about by people who have, even get into the accounts of Carpini and Marco Polo. The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, which first appeared in the middle of the fourteenth century, around 1356, did much to establish the prevailing Western image of the East as an exotic place of great wealth and luxury, where fact and fancy were difficult to separate. In contrast to debate over the authenticity of Marco Polo’s Travels, the balance of probability here is that these other Travels are a mixture of distillations of other people’s accounts and complete invention, and that ‘Sir John Mandeville’ himself never existed. Nonetheless, the book had an impact. Columbus read it, as well as Marco Polo’s story, and Leonardo da Vinci had a copy. It is important not to over‐‘normalize’ these early accounts. Not only are fact and legend freely mingled, the geography itself is frequently confused: for example, ‘Mandeville’ clearly thinks India is further away from Europe than China. For our present extracts, we have eschewed the more ‘factual’ parts (Mandeville’s account of ‘Cathay’ is quite close to Marco Polo’s) and opted instead for pure legend. One of the most powerful of these concerns the empire of Prester John, a mythical Christian king, living in the heart of Asia (or Africa), who would come to deliver Christendom from the threat of alien powers, not least Islam. Our extracts are taken from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, translated with an introduction by C. W. R. D. Moseley, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1983, pp. 167–72.
From the land of Bactria men go many days’ journey to the land of Prester John, who is Emperor of India; and his land is called the isle of Pentoxere.
This Emperor, Prester John, has many different countries under his rule, in which are many noble cities and fair towns, and many isles great and broad. For this land of India is divided into isles on account of the great rivers which flow out of Paradise and run through and divide up his land. He also has many great isles in the sea. The principal city of the isle of Pentoxere is called Nise; the Emperor’s seat is there, and so it is a noble and rich city. Prester John has under him many kings and many different peoples; and his land is good and wealthy, but not so rich as the land of the Great Khan of Cathay. For merchants do not travel so much to that land as to the land of Cathay, for it is too long a journey. And also merchants can get all they need in the isle of Cathay – spices, golden cloth, and other rich things; and they are reluctant to go to Pentoxere because of the long way and the dangers of the sea. For there are in many places in that sea great rocks of the stone called adamant, which of its nature draws iron to itself. And because no ships that have iron nails in them can sail that way because of these rocks, which would attract the ships to them, men dare not sail there. The ships of that part of the world are all made of wood with no iron. I was once in that sea, and I saw what looked like an island of trees and growing bushes; and the seamen told me that it was all great ships that the rock of adamant had attracted and caught there, and that all these trees and bushes had grown from the things that were in the ships. So because of these dangers and others like them, and because of the distance, they go to Cathay. And yet Cathay is not so near that those who set out from Venice or Genoa or other places in Lombardy do not spend eleven or twelve months travelling by land and sea before they arrive in Cathay. The land of Prester John is many days’ journey further. Merchants who do go there go through the land of Persia and come to a city called Hermes [Ormuz], because a philosopher called Hermes founded it. Then they cross an arm of the sea and come to another city called Soboth or Colach [Cambaye]; there they get all kinds of goods, and as great plenty of parrots as there is of larks in our country. In this country there is little wheat or barley, and therefore they eat millet and rice, honey and milk and cheese and all sorts of fruits. Merchants can travel safely enough from there if they wish to. In that land are many parrots, which in their language they call psitakes [psitacci]; of their nature they talk just like a man. Those that talk well have long broad tongues, and five toes on each foot; those that do not talk at all – or not much – have only three toes….
Now I shall speak of some of the principal isles of Prester John’s land, and of the royalty of his state and of what religion and creed he and his people follow. This Emperor Prester John is a Christian, and so is the greater part of his land, even if they do not have all the articles of the faith as clearly as we do. Nevertheless they believe in God as Father, Son and Holy Ghost; they are a very devout people, faithful to each other, and there is neither fraud nor guile among them. This Emperor has under his rule seventy‐two provinces, each one ruled by a king. These kings have other Kings under them, and all are tributary to Prester John. […]
I shall now tell you of the arrangement of Prester John’s palace, which is usually at the city of Susa. That palace is so wealthy, so noble, so full of delights that it is a marvel to tell of. For on top of the main tower are two balls of gold, in each of which are two great fair carbuncles, which shine very brightly in the night. The chief gates of the palace are of precious stones, which men call sardonyx, and the bars are of ivory. The windows of the hall and the chambers are of crystal. All the tables they eat off are of emeralds, amethysts and, some, of gold, set with precious stones; the pedestals that support the tables are, in the same way, of precious stone. The steps up which the Emperor goes to his throne where he sits at meals are, in turn, onyx, crystal, jasper, amethyst, sardonyx, and coral; and the highest step, which he rests his feet on when at meat, is chrysolite. All the steps are bordered with fine gold, set full of pearls and other precious stones on the sides and edges. The sides of his throne are of emerald, edged in fine gold set with precious stones. The pillars in his chamber are of gold set with precious stones, many of which are carbuncles to give light at night. Nevertheless every night he has burning in his chamber twelve vessels of crystal full of balm, to give a good sweet smell and drive away noxious airs. […]
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