translations into Latin, English, Danish, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, Czech, and
Irish. Of the three distinct versions, the earliest was certainly composed in French on the
Continent. An “insular” version, done ca. 1390 in England, is a Middle English classic,
whose anonymous author is sometimes considered the “father” of English prose. The
Voyages popularized the newly discovered wonders of the East, including much fabulous
material, and gives a lengthy description of the Holy Land. Mandeville compiled the
work at third hand from French translations by Jean Le Long of Saint-Omer (d. 1383) of
genuine Latin travel accounts from the early 14th century. Le Long’s translations of five
Latin travel accounts are found together in several manuscripts, of which the best known
is the Livre des merveilles (B.N. fr. 2810), copied ca. 1400 for the duke of Burgundy.
Mandeville also drew liberally from Vincent de Beauvais’s Speculum naturale, Marco
Polo’s Devisement du monde, Gossuin de Metz’s Image du monde, and Brunetto Latini.
Though filled with fabulous accounts, the Voyages relates in a simple and
unselfconscious prose the sum of medieval knowledge of the world. It explains, for
example, why the world is round and incorporates many other accurate observations.
Through the centuries, it has been alternately praised for its style and richness and
damned for absurdities and plagiarism. The author has on occasion been confused with a
Liège physician, Jean de Bourgogne, and with the writer and notary Jean d’Outremeuse.
Mandeville is also credited with a French prose lapidary found in 15th-century
manuscripts and early printed editions.
William W.Kibler
[See also: BRUNETTO LATINI; IMAGE DU MONDE; LAPIDARY; MARCO
POLO; OUTREMEUSE, JEAN D’; VINCENT DE BEAUVAIS]
Mandeville, Jean de. Mandeville’s Travels, Texts and Translations, ed. M.Letts. London: Hakluyt
Society, 1953. [Edition of B.N. fr. 4515 and the English “Egerton” translation.]
——. Mandeville’s Travels, ed. Michael C.Seymour. Oxford: Clarendon, 1967. [Edition of the
English “Cotton” translation.]
——. The Metrical Version of Mandeville’s Travels, ed. Michael C.Seymour. London: Early
English Text Society, 1973.
——. The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, trans. C.W.R.D. Moseley. Harmondsworth: Penguin,
- [Modern English translation.]
De Poerck, Guy. “La tradition manuscrite des Voyages de Jean de Mandeville.” Romanica
gandensia 4(1955):125–58.
Goosse, A. “Les lapidaires attribués a Mandeville.” Dialectes belgo-romans 17(1960):63–112.
MANEGOLD OF LAUTENBACH
(ca. 1045?-before 1109). Manegold of Lautenbach enjoyed a long and varied career that
earned him a reputation both as a “master of the modern masters” and as a firm defender
of the reforming policies of Pope Gregory VII. Originally from Bavaria and known as the
Teutonicorum doctor, Manegold seems to have established himself, ca. 1060, as a master
in Paris, where one of his disciples was William of Champeaux. Like his contemporary
Lanfranc, Manegold traveled from place to place earning his livelihood as a teacher; but
unlike his contemporaries, he enlisted the talents of his daughters as instructors. From
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