The Travels of Sir John Mandeville

Ostensibly written by an English knight, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville purport to relate his experiences in the Holy Land, Egypt, India, and China. Mandeville claims to have served in the Great Khan's army and to have travelled in the lands beyond—countries populated by dog-headed men, cannibals, Amazons, and Pygmies.

Although Marco Polo's slightly earlier narrative ultimately proved more factually accurate, Mandeville's was widely known, used by Columbus, Leonardo da Vinci, and Martin Frobisher, and inspired writers as diverse as Swift, Defoe, and Coleridge.

This intriguing blend of fact, exaggeration, and absurdity offers both a fascinating insight into and subtle criticism of fourteenth-century conceptions of the world.