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: "Even in that
part of the book which may be admitted with probability to represent some
genuine experience, there are distinct traces that another work has been
made use of, more or less, as an aid in the compilation, we might almost
say, as a framework to fill up.
