Devisement of the world

See also: Book of the wonders (homonymy), Book of the wonders, Wonders of the world (homonymy), Wonders of the world

This account, which one also finds under other denominations like It Milione or the book of the wonders , Devisement of the world , recalls the adventures of the commercial Explorateur Vénitien Marco Polo which lived at the court of large the Khan Kubilaï. He was written in 1298.

It milione (the millionaire) was the nickname given to Marco Polo, which would have grown rich by way such as that could have displeased. Indeed, Marco Polo was in prison when it dictated its account of voyage to the writer Rustichello of Pisa.

the book of the wonders is the name usually employed nowadays to indicate the book which describes the voyages of Marco Polo. It is under this name that it is published today.

Another book, the Book of the wonders of the world, was written by the Explorateur Jean de Mandeville between 1355 and 1357 (see below), after its voyages in Far East which lasted 34 years (1322 - 1356).

The account of the voyages of Marco Polo

Its important work is a poetic account which testifies to the age of the first geographical explorations. It describes in a filled with wonder way, to see exaggerated, the richnesses and the enchantments of the traditions and habits Asian. A famous passage devoted to the description enchanter of the residence of summer of large the khan with Ciandu (today Shang you) is an good example. Moreover its accounts about the richness of the Cathay (China) are accommodated with skepticism by the Venetian ones, which by derision called it It Milione (the man to the million), from where the other title given to its work. The accounts which it made with Rusticello of Pisa, a companion of detention during the wars opposing Venice to Gènes (1298), made it possible this last to write in French the account of his voyage which lasted approximately 24 years. Its work was a sharp success. Indeed, it quickly was translated into several languages, abundantly recopied and diffused in all Europe. Read by much like a work of imagination, it influenced two centuries later the large discoverers, like Christophe Colomb and Vasco de Gama.

But so like any explorer, Marco Polo returned in contact with remote civilizations, it truly did not discover anything moreover than what others had found before him. Nevertheless, its work will constitute the first precise documentation on the countries and the people of the East to the Middle Ages.

Research in progress on the Book of the wonders of the world (Jean de Mandeville)

The work of Marco Polo should not be confused with the Livre of the wonders of the world of Jean de Mandeville which is a Manuscrit written in the years 1355 - 1357, therefore after the voyage of Marco Polo.

The delivers wonders of the world gives a report on the possibilities of circumnavigation , in a Western company where, apart from the cultivated mediums, one was not aware that the Earth was spherical .

The manuscit was reproduced with more than 250 specimens, in three initial versions, and write in a whole of vernacular languages.

The work of Jean de Mandeville gives an account of the diversity of the uses of the vernacular languages at the 14th century. A long time, one thought that he had been written in Latin then translated into languages Frenchwoman and English, before being translated in almost all the languages of the Occident.

In fact last research (cf Nathalie Bouloux, “Jean de Mandeville, the Book of the wonders of the world , edition critical by Christiane Deluz”, Medieval, 45 (2003), showed the complexity of the writing and the forwarding of text. There exist currently three recognized versions:

  • the insular version, in speaking Anglo-Norman or speaking continental;
  • the continental version, in speaking continental;
  • the Ogier version, with interpolations of texts putting in Ogier scene the Dane)
Certain indices leave think that the insular version is oldest.

Writing probably in 1356 in Liege, the text would have passed to England around 1375. In the same way, on the continent, it was translated to speak about it Anglo-Norman from where would have been born the continental version. In England also another drafting of the insular version in speaking appears continental.

The book of the wonders of God (Pierre Worthy the)

The expression Livre of the Wonders probably comes from a work of Pierre Worthy the, abbot of Cluny, large traveller, who wrote the Livre of the wonders of God .

See too

External bonds

  • Devisement of the world, exposure to the BNF

  • critical Study of the book of the wonders of Jean de Mandeville

Bibliography and references

  • the large book of the explorers and explorations , edition France Leisures

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