MANDEVILLE, Jean de.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Tractato dele piu maraviliose cose e piu notabile che si trovino in le parte del mondo. Rare early Italian edition of one of the first printed travel narratives, taking its reader to the Holy Land, Egypt, Turkey, Persia, Tartary, India, and China. Extremely popular during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Mandeville's adventures set the stage for all European accounts of encounters with the east's great civilizations.All early editions, especially those in vernacular languages, are rare both institutionally and in commerce. No copies of this edition are traced in auction records, and an online institutional search returns four locations.This copy is in a charming contemporary Italian binding. The style of the blind-stamped decoration on the covers points to a northern Italian workshop. The arrangement of the concentric borders incorporating palmette tools echoes bindings produced in the Veneto region or in Venice in the late 15th and early 16th centuries (e.g. BCABo, 16.K.III.1, held in the Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio in Bologna). The Voyages de Jehan de Mandeville chevalier, which appeared in manuscript in France c.1357, purports to be the personal account of Sir John Mandeville, born in St Albans, who left England in 1322 and travelled the world, serving the sultan of Cairo and visiting the Great Khan, and finally in 1357, while ill, setting down his discoveries. It covers his travels to the Middle East and Palestine, before he continues to India, Tibet, China, Java, and S

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