Ostensibly written by an English knight the Travels purport to relate his experiences in the Holy Land Egypt India & China Mandeville claims to have served in the Great Khan's army & to have travelled in 'the lands beyond'
- countries populated by dog-headed men cannibals Amazons & Pygmies Although Marco Polo's slightly earlier narrative ultimately proved more factually accurate Mandeville's was widely known used by Columbus Leonardo da Vinci & Martin Frobisher & inspiring writers as diverse as Swift Defoe & Coleridge This intriguing blend of fact exaggeration & absurdity offers both fascinating insight into & subtle criticism of fourteenth-century conceptions of the world