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Cover

Medieval English Travel

A Critical Anthology

Edited by Anthony Bale and Sebastian Sobecki

Publication Date - 01 November 2021

ISBN: 9780192848604

528 pages
Paperback
9.2 x 6.1 inches

In Stock

Description

Medieval English Travel: A Critical Anthology is a comprehensive volume that consists of three sections: concise introductory essays written by leading specialists; an anthology of important and less well-known texts, grouped by destination; and a selection of supporting bibliographies organized by type of voyage. This anthology presents some texts for the first time in a modern edition. The first section consists of six companion essays on 'Places, Real and Imagined', 'Maps and the Organization of Space', 'Encounters', 'Codes and Languages', 'Trade and Exchange', and 'Politics and Diplomacy'.

The organizing principle for the anthology is one of expansive geography. Starting with local English narratives, the section moves to France, en-route destinations, the Holy Land, and the Far East. In total, the anthology contains twenty-six texts or extracts, including new editions of Floris & Blancheflour, The Stacions of Rome, The Libelle of Englyshe Polycye, and Chaucers 'Squire's Tale', in addition to less familiar texts, such as Osbern Bokenham's Mappula Angliae, John Kay's Siege of Rhodes, 1480, and Richard Torkington's Diaries of Englysshe Travell.

The supporting bibliographies, in turn, take a functional approach to travel, and support the texts by elucidating contexts for travel and travellers in five areas: 'commercial voyages', 'diplomatic and military travel', 'maps, rutters, and charts', 'practical needs, languages, and currencies', and 'religious voyages'.

Features

  • The first anthology of medieval English travel texts
  • Features concise introductory essays written by leading specialists, an anthology of important and less well-known texts, grouped by destination; and a selection of supporting bibliographies organised by type of voyage
  • Examines narratives from England, France, Palestine, and the Far East
  • Contains 26 texts or extracts, including new editions of Floris & Blancheflour, The Stacions of Rome, The Libelle of Englyshe Polycye, and Chaucer's 'Squire's Tale'

About the Author(s)

Anthony Bale, Professor of Medieval Studies and Deputy Dean of Arts, Birkbeck, University of London,Sebastian Sobecki, Professor of Medieval English Literature and Culture, University of Groningen

Anthony Bale is Professor of Medieval Studies and Deputy Dean of Arts at Birkbeck, University of London. He has published widely on medieval literature, culture, and religion. In particular, his work has explored relations between Christians and Jews in medieval England and, more recently, the culture of medieval pilgrimage. He has also edited and translated several medieval texts, and published a new translation and edition of The Book of Margery Kempe (Oxford University Press, 2015). His current work explores travel, books, and pilgrimage between England and the Holy Land in the later Middle Ages.



Sebastian Sobecki is Professor of Medieval English Literature and Culture at the University of Groningen. His research concentrates on medieval English and early Tudor literature, especially Chaucer and Gower. He is author of Unwritten Verities: The Making of England's Vernacular Legal Culture, 1463-1549 (University of Notre Dame Press, 2015).

Reviews

"Anthony Bale and Sebastian Sobecki's Medieval English Travel is a wonderful anthology, in the full meaning of that word." -- Mary Baine Campbell, Brandeis University, Journal of British Studies 61

"Antony Bale and Sebastian Sobecki's edited volume Medieval English Travel: A Critical Anthology is an invaluable resource for those studying and teaching Middle English travel writing." -- Kate Ash-Irisarri et al., The Year's Work in English Studies

Table of Contents

    Introduction, Anthony Bale and Sebastian Sobecki
    Part 1: Essays
    1. Places, Real and Imagined, Anthony Bale
    2. Maps and the Organisation of Space, Alfred Hiatt
    3. Encounters, A. Matthew Boyd Goldie
    4. Languages and Codes, Jonathan Hsy
    5. Trade and Exchange, Sebastian Sobecki
    6. Politics and Diplomacy, Joanna Bellis
    Part 2: Anthology
    7. Saewulf
    8. The Description of the World
    9. Robert of Gloucester, Metrical Chronicle, on the Third Crusade
    10. Sir John Mandeville's Prologue
    11. Sir John Mandeville in India and Caldilhe
    12. The Division of the World
    13. St Bridget of Sweden in the Holy Land
    14. Geoffrey Chaucer, 'The Squire's Tale'
    15. Floris & Blancheflour
    16. Jean Froissart, Chronicles, trans. Lord Berners
    17. The Stacions of Rome
    18. Richard Coer de Lyon
    19. Channel crossings in the Alliterative Morte Arthure
    20. The Book of Margery Kempe (extracts)
    21. John Page, The Siege of Rouen
    22. The Libelle of Englyshe Polycye
    23. Osbern Bokenham, Mappula Angliae
    24. Gilbert Hay, The Buik of Alexander
    25. The Pilgrims' Sea Voyage
    26. William Wey's will
    27. Documents of the English pilgrims at Rome
    28. Two travellers' itineraries
    29. John Kay, The Siege of Rhodes 1480
    30. The Capitulation of Granada 1492
    31. The Walsingham Ballad
    32. Richard Torkington, Diaries of Englysshe Travell
    Part 3: Contexts
    33. Commercial voyages
    34. Diplomatic and military travel
    35. Maps, rutters, and charts
    36. Practical needs
    37. Religious voyages

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