Medieval English Travel A Critical Anthology

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 organised 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 the Organsiation of Space', 'Encounters', 'Languages and Codes', 'Trade and Exchange', and 'Politics and Diplomacy'.

The organising 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 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, 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', and 'religious voyages'.

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).

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