by Anthony Bale
A captivating journey of the expansive world of medieval travel, from London to Constantinople to the court of China and beyond.
Europeans of the Middle Ages were the first to use travel guides to orient their wanderings, as they moved through a world punctuated with miraculous wonders and beguiling encounters. In this vivid and alluring history, medievalist Anthony Bale invites readers on an odyssey across the medieval world, recounting the advice that circulated among those venturing to the road for pilgrimage, trade, diplomacy, and war.
Journeying alongside scholars, spies, and saints, from Western Europe to the Far East, the Antipodes and the ends of the earth, Bale provides indispensable information on the exchange rate between Bohemian ducats and Venetian groats, medieval cures for seasickness, and how to avoid extortionist tour guides and singing sirens. He takes us from the streets of Rome, more ruin than tourist spot, and tours of the Khan's court in Beijing to Mamluk-controlled Jerusalem, where we ride asses across the holy terrain, and bustling bazaars of Tabriz.
We also learn of rumored fantastical places, like ones where lambs grow on trees and giant canes grow fruit made of gems. And we are offered a glimpse of what non-European travelers thought of the West on their own travels.
Using previously untranslated contemporaneous documents from a colorful range of travelers, and from as far and wide as Turkey, Iceland, North Africa, and Russia, A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages is a witty and unforgettable exploration of how Europeans understood—and often misunderstood—the larger world.
A captivating journey of the expansive world of medieval travel, from London to Constantinople to the court of China and beyond.
Europeans of the Middle Ages were the first to use travel guides to orient their wanderings, as they moved through a world punctuated with miraculous wonders and beguiling encounters. In this vivid and alluring history, medievalist Anthony Bale invites readers on an odyssey across the medieval world, recounting the advice that circulated among those venturing to the road for pilgrimage, trade, diplomacy, and war.
Journeying alongside scholars, spies, and saints, from Western Europe to the Far East, the Antipodes and the ends of the earth, Bale provides indispensable information on the exchange rate between Bohemian ducats and Venetian groats, medieval cures for seasickness, and how to avoid extortionist tour guides and singing sirens. He takes us from the streets of Rome, more ruin than tourist spot, and tours of the Khan's court in Beijing to Mamluk-controlled Jerusalem, where we ride asses across the holy terrain, and bustling bazaars of Tabriz.
We also learn of rumored fantastical places, like ones where lambs grow on trees and giant canes grow fruit made of gems. And we are offered a glimpse of what non-European travelers thought of the West on their own travels.
Using previously untranslated contemporaneous documents from a colorful range of travelers, and from as far and wide as Turkey, Iceland, North Africa, and Russia, A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages is a witty and unforgettable exploration of how Europeans understood—and often misunderstood—the larger world.
Reviews-
-
December 11, 2023
Historian Bale (Margery Kempe) draws on medieval European travel guides and travelogues for an informative and entertaining survey of “the practicalities, the pleasantries and the perils” of travel in the Middle Ages. Travelers who journeyed by foot, ship, and horseback encountered a landscape of monuments and ruins before reaching bustling European cities like London and Rome, or more distant destinations such as Constantinople and Jerusalem. Though the travel guides were not always completely accurate, they included sound advice (always carry a staff and bag, preferably blessed by a priest before departure; travel in groups for safety; bring sufficient coin for tolls, fees, and other expenses; use good manners in taverns; and prepare a last will and testament before leaving) as well as fanciful tales (airborne cats; trees that grow gems for the taking; and repeated warnings about cannibalism). Beyond human curiosity and wanderlust, the medieval traveler was motivated by religious pilgrimages, economic opportunities, and political intrigue, all of which receive attention in Bale’s vibrant profiles of various historical travelers, including Rabban Bar Sauma, a Mongol Christian and emissary whose Eastern perspective of Western life presents a welcome departure from the Eurocentric view. Medieval history buffs will relish this. -
February 15, 2024
A globe-trotting history of medieval travelers. In this appealing survey, Bale, a London-based professor of medieval studies and author of Margery Kempe: A Mixed Life, has turned up a surprising number of travel guides and personal accounts beginning around 1000. At the time, travelogues mixed truth with fabrications, eyewitness testimony with antique fantasies; some were written in libraries by monks who had nothing better to do. Most of them acknowledged the grim reality of the times: "Written travel guides bear more than a passing resemblance to survival manuals; places were described in terms of how best to be endured rather than enjoyed." During the Middle Ages, traders and adventurers traveled for pleasure, but the dominant form of medieval travel was the pilgrimage. Executed properly, it was no holiday, but rather an act of self-punishment and self-reform. Inevitably, with masses of the devout on the road, there appeared the trappings of mass tourism, with paid agents and suppliers, inns, ferries, and money-changing stations. Absent modern standards of sanitation, law enforcement, and medicine, these circumstances produced experiences that no modern reader would tolerate, but they make for an entertaining text. After setting the scene, Bale delivers a steady stream of extracts from his sources. The majority describe Europeans crossing the continent to the Holy Land, which despite intense suffering from their travels they greeted ecstatically; their enthusiasm did not diminish even after observing unimpressive holy sites, which seemed mostly to consist of dilapidated churches and saints' body parts. The author provides accounts by Europeans who traveled still farther and by pilgrims from the Muslim world and Far East, who recorded their impressions and experience of the West with both wonder and misunderstanding. While readers may want to skim innumerable descriptions of churchly architecture, mostly they will marvel at what traveling humans endured hundreds of years ago. A wise, well-informed historical study.COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-
March 1, 2024
In this breezy and engaging popular history of medieval travel, Bale (medieval studies, Univ. of London; Margery Kempe: A Mixed Life) recounts the journeys of 14th- and 15th-century Europeans. His book follows numerous individuals as they travel for religious pilgrimage, trade, military conquest, or simple curiosity. Rather than evaluating the accuracy of medieval accounts, Bale relates what the explorers believed they encountered including fantastical creatures, nonexistent lands, and cultures that may have never existed, alongside actual places and people. Chapters on the mythical Christian king Prester John, Ethiopia, and the Mongol conquest of China are particularly strong. But some of the psychologizing of medieval personages and analogies to present-day attitudes toward travel may be a stretch for some readers. Additionally, the inclusion of a glossary and maps would have greatly aided casual audiences. VERDICT An informative and entertaining account of medieval travel that will be appreciated by readers of both popular history and travel stories. Those more interested in relics should consult Patrick J. Geary's Furta Sacra.--Evan M. Anderson
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
