A knight's legacy : Mandeville and Mandevillian lore in early modern England / edited by Ladan Niayesh.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Niayesh, Ladan, editor.

Series:

Manchester medieval literature.

Manchester medieval literature and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mandeville, John, Sir. Itinerarium--Criticism and interpretation--Congresses.

Mandeville, John.

Mandeville, John, Sir--Travel--Congresses.

Travelers' writings, English--History and criticism--Congresses.

Travelers' writings, English.

Chivalry in literature--Congresses.

Chivalry in literature.

Geography, Medieval, in literature--Congresses.

Geography, Medieval, in literature.

Great Britain--History--Congresses.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 216 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

It is surprising, at this point in the story of the rich and strange rediscovery of a text so important to French and English literary and social history, that no collection of scholarly essays related to Mandeville's Travels yet exists in English or French. This book is a collection of essays by scholars in England and France, who produce a complex and sometimes contradictory view of Mandeville's book as an important object of early modern attention, as well as a feature of early modern literary context. The chapters range in emphasis from textual and bibliographic studies of Mandeville's late medieval and early modern Nachleben to studies of 'Mandevillian ideologies', to readings of romances and especially theatrical productions, illuminated by understandings of the new life in print of the Travels and its excerpted account of the Levant. Part I of the book makes clear that there were profound changes in motives for publication, anthologisation and readerly reception of the text(s) from the time of the incunabula, through its use by explorers Columbus, Frobisher and Ralegh, to its appearance as a children's book in the Enlightenment. These changes underscore alterations of economies and geographical experience in the mostly post-medieval 'Age of Discovery'. Part II is on Mandevillian ideologies and examines the Nachleben of the Travels through a historical discourse on the Turks and Islam in early modern England, development and geography of scripture. Part III is on Mandevillian and focuses on the drama of the newly invented medium of the commercial theatre.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

Contributors

Abbreviations

Foreword / Mary Baine Campbell

Part I: Editions and Receptions

1. Mandeville in England: the early years / Michael S. Seymour

2. 'Whet-stone leasings of old Maundevile': reading the Travels in early modern England / Charles W. R. D. Moseley

3. Mandeville reviviscent: early modern travel tales Kenneth Parker

Part II: Mandevillian Ideologies

4. The four rivers of paradise: Mandeville and the Book of Genesis / Leo Carruthers

5. Mandeville on Muhammad: texts, contexts and influence / Matthew Dimmock

6. A 'science of dreams': 'the fantastic ethnography' of Sir Walter Ralegh and Baconian experimentalism / Line Cottegnies

Part III: Mandevillian stages

7. Marlowe's Tamburlaine: the well-travelled tyrant and some of his unchecked baggage / Richard Hillman

8. Prester John writes back: the legend and its early modern reworkings / Ladan Niayesh

9. Stage-Mandevilles: the far east and the limits of representation in the theatre, 1621/2002 / Gordon Mcmullan

10. The politics of Mandevillian monsters in Richard Brome's The Antipodes / Claire Jowitt

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 17 Mar 2026).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-5261-4823-4

OCLC:

1149150103