Pilgrimages, Travel Writing, and the Medieval Exotic

This article examines pilgrimage and travel writing in England during the medieval period. It explains that during this period, The Book of John Mandeville was the best-seller and possibly the most popular travel narrative ever composed. However, the book is not the record of a historical traveller's sojourn, but a compendium of cultural details, pious histories, marvels, and exotica culled from an array of sources. This article describes how the work transformed itself from a typical account of Holy Land pilgrimage based upon William of Boldensele's Liber de quisbusdam ultramarines partibus and how populate its worlds with bodies in motion.