240: Legenda De
Joseph Et Asseneth Ejus Uxore, In Papiro.
In eodem itinerarium Johannis de
Mandevilla militis, apud guilhelmitanos Leodienses sepulti.
Dr. S. Bormans has added the following note: "Jean Mandeville, ou Manduith,
theologien et mathematicien, etait ne a St. Alban en Angleterre d'une
famille noble. On le surnomma pour un motif inconnu, ad Barbam et
magnovillanus. En 1322, il traversa la France pour aller en Asie, servit
quelque temps dans les troupes du Sultan d'Egypte et revint seulement en
1355 en Angleterre. Il mourut a Liege chez les Guilhemins, le 17th
Novembre, 1372. Il laissa au dit monastere plusieurs MSS. de ses oeuvres
fort vantes, tant de ses voyages que de la medecine, ecrits de sa main; il
y avait encore en ladite maison plusieurs meubles qu'il leur laissa pour
memoire. Il a laisse quelques livres de medecine qui n'ont jamais ete
imprimes, des tabulae astronomicae, de chorda recta et umbra, de
doctrina theologica. La relation de son voyage est en latin, francais et
anglais; il raconte, en y melant beaucoup de fables, ce qu'il a vu de
curieux en Egypte, en Arabie et en Perse."
Then is inserted, an abstract from Lefort, Liege Herald, at the end of
the 17th century, from Jean d'Outremeuse, which we quote from another
publication of Dr. Bormans' as it contains the final sentence: "Mort
enfin, etc." not to be found in the paper of the Bibliophile Belge.
In his introduction to the Chronique et geste de Jean des Preis dit
d'Outremeuse, Brussels, F. Hayez, 1887 (Collection des Chroniques belges
inedites), Dr. Stanislas Bormans writes, pp. cxxxiii.-cxxxiv.: "L'an
M.CCC.LXXII, mourut a Liege, le 12 Novembre, un homme fort distingue par
sa naissance, avant de s'y faire connoitre sous le nom de Jean de
Bourgogne dit a la Barbe. Il s'ouvrit neanmoins au lit de la mort a Jean
d'Outremeuse, son compere, et institue son executeur testamentaire. De
vrai il se titra, dans le precis de sa derniere volonte, messire Jean de
Mandeville, chevalier, comte de Montfort en Angleterre, et seigneur de
l'isle de Campdi et du chateau Perouse. Ayant cependant eu le malheur de
tuer, en son pays, un comte qu'il ne nomme pas, il s'engagea a parcourir
les trois parties du monde. Vint a Liege en 1343. Tout sorti qu'il etoit
d'une noblesse tres-distinguee, il aima de s'y tenir cache. Il etoit, au
reste, grand naturaliste, profond philosophe et astrologue, y joint en
particulier une connoissance tres singuliere de la physique, se trompant
rarement lorsqu'il disoit son sentiment a l'egard d'un malade, s'il en
reviendroit ou pas. Mort enfin, on l'enterra aux F.F. Guillelmins, au
faubourg d'Avroy, comme vous avez vu plus amplement cydessous."
It is not the first time that the names Jean de Mandeville and Jean a
la Barbe are to be met with, as Ortelius, in his description of Liege,
included in his Itinerary of Belgium, has given the epitaph of the
knightly physician:[37(1)]
"Leodium primo aspectu ostentat in sinistra ripa (nam dextra vinetis plena
est,) magna, & populosa suburbia ad collium radices, in quorum iugis multa
sunt, & pulcherrima Monasteria, inter quae magnificum illud ac nobile D.
Laurentio dicatum ab Raginardo episcopo, vt habet Sigebertus, circa ann.
sal. M XXV aedificatum est in hac quoq. regione Guilelmitaru Coenobium in
quo epitaphiu hoc Ioannis a Mandeuille excepimus: Hic iacet vir nobilis
Dns Ioes de Mandeville al Dcus ad barbam miles dns de Capdi natus de Anglia
medicie pfessor deuotissimus orator et bonorum largissimus paupribus
erogator qui toto quasi orbe lustrato leodii diem vite sue clausit extremum
ano Dni M CCC deg. LXXI deg.[37(2)] mensis novebr die XVII.[37(3)]
"Haec in lapide, in quo caelata viri armati imago, leonem calcantis, barba
bifurcata, ad caput manus benedicens, & vernacula haec verba: vos ki
paseis sor mi pour lamour deix proies por mi. Clypeus erat vacuus, in quo
olim laminam fuisse dicebant aeream, & eius in ea itidem caelata insignia,
leonem videlicet argenteum, cui ad pectus lunula rubea, in campo caeruleo,
quem limbus ambiret denticulatus ex auro, eius nobis ostendebat & cultros,
ephippiaque, & calcaria, quibus vsum fuisse asserebat in peragrando toto
fere terrarum orbe, vt clarius eius testatur itinerarium, quod typis etiam
excusum passim habetur."[37]
Dr. Warner writes in the National Biography:
"There is abundant proof that the tomb of the author of the Travels was
to be seen in the Church of the Guillemins or Guillelmites at Liege down
to the demolition of the building in 1798. The fact of his burial there,
with the date of his death, 17th November, 1372, was published by Bale in
1548 (Summarium f. 149 b), and was confirmed independently by Jacob
Meyer (Annales rerum Flandric. 1561, p. 165) and Lud. Guicciardini.
(Paesi Bassi, 1567, p. 281.)"
In a letter dated from Bodley's Library, 17th March, 1884, to The
Academy, 12th April, 1884, No. 623, Mr. Edward B. Nicholson drew
attention to the abstract from Jean d'Ontremeuse, and came to the
conclusion that the writer of Mandeville's relation was a profound liar,
and that he was the Liege Professor of Medicine, John of Burgundy or a la
Barbe. He adds: "If, in the matter of literary honesty, John a Beard was
a bit of a knave, he was very certainly no fool."
On the other hand, M. Leopold Delisle,[38] has shown that two
manuscripts, Nouv. acq. franc. 4515 (Barrois, 24) and Nouv. acq. franc.
4516 (Barrois, 185), were part formerly of one volume copied in 1371 by
Raoulet of Orleans and given in the same year to King Charles V. by his
physician Gervaise Crestien, viz. one year before the death of the
so-called Mandeville; one of these manuscripts - now separate - contains the
Book of Jehan de Mandeville, the other one, a treatise of "la preservacion
de epidimie, minucion ou curacion d'icelle faite de maistre Jehan de
Bourgoigne, autrement dit a la Barbe, professeur en medicine et cytoien du
Liege," in 1365. This bringing together is certainly not fortuitous.
Sir Henry Yule traces thus the sources of the spurious work:
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