TREVISA. THE MANDEVILLE TRANSLATORS

(I) TREVISA

Bartholomaeus Anglicus (fl. 1230–50), sometimes erroneously designated Bartholomew de Glanvil or Glanville, one of the friars minor, an Englishborn scholar of Paris. His classic work was first printed at Basel, c. 1470. It was translated into French before Trevisa translaed it into English. De Proprietatibus Rerum, Wynkyn de Worde, 1495; Berthelet, 1535, shortened and altered; Batman (Batman on Bartholomew), 1582, much shortened and altered. MSS. at Helmingham, Burleigh House, Cambridge Univ. Library, Brit. Mus. Harl. 614, Harl. 4789.

Dialogue, between “Dominus” and “Clericus,” with an epistle to Lord Berkeley, being introduction to Polychronicon, as in MS. Harl. 1900 and Marquis of Exeter’s MS. at Burleigh House. Printed by Caxton with Polychronicon. Also in John Smyth’s Lives of the Berkeleys; vol. I, ed. Maclean, Gloucester, 1883.

Higden’s Polychronicon (translation): Caxton, 1482; Wynkyn de Worde, 1495?; P. Treveris, 1527; Rolls Series, 1865–86: with Latin text: also with anonymous translation, c. 1432–50: vols. I, II, and introduction by Churchill Babington: vols. III-IX by J. R. Lumby, with introduction to vol. III. For most of the work four MSS. of Trevisa are compared. MSS. at Burleigh House; St. John’s Coll., Camb.; Brit. Mus. Addit. 24,194, early 15th century, once the Earl of Warwick’s; Cott. Tib. D. VII, northern; Harl. 1900, dated 1448.

Begynynge of the World, The, and the Rewmes betwixe of Folkis and the Ende of Worldes, translation of a tract by pseudo-Methodius. Included in MSS. Harl. 1900 and Bartholomaeus at Burleigh House.

Dialogus inter Militem et Clericum. Translation from pseudo-Ockham on temporal power of the church. Sermon by Richard FitzRalph abp Armagh, addressed to the pope, against the mendicant friars. Translation—These two included with Polychronicon in the following MSS: Brit. Mus. Addit. 24,194; Harl. 1900; St. John’s Coll., Camb., and with Bartholomaeus at Burleigh House. Probably anterior to Polychronicon.

Nicodemus de Passione Christi. Translation. Brit. Mus. Addit. 16,165. (?) Vegetius de Re Militari and (?) Egidius de Regimine Principum. Translations doubtful. Bodleian, Digby MSS., 233.

For further bibliographical information, see:

Ames, J. Typographical Antiquities. 1749. Also, ed. Dibdin, T.F. 1810. Gives colophon, discusses dates.

Bale, J. Illustrium majoris Britanniae Scriptorum Summarium. Ed. Poole, R. L. and Bateson, M. Oxford, 1903. Anecdota Oxoniensia.

Blades, W. Life and Typography of Caxton. 2 vols. 1861–3. Vol. I gives Caxton’s Prohemye to Polychronicon, vol. II bibliography of MSS.

Cooke, J. H., in Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeolog. Society’s Transactions, 1877, Account of Inscriptions in Berkeley Castle Chapel; and in Notes and Queries, 5th Series, vol. X (1878), p. 261, on Trevisa’s Translation of the Bible.

Tanner, T. Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica. Ed. Wilkins, D. 1748. (Sub nom.)

Trevisa’s Life and connection with Oxford

Boase, C.W. Register of Exeter College, Oxford Historical Society, 1894, or, more briefly, in Historical MSS. Commission, 2nd and 3rd Reports.

Boase, G.C. and Courtney, W.P. Bibliotheca Cornubiensis. 3 vols. 1874–82. Vol. II, Calendar Patent Rolls, Richard II, sub an. 1379, 1380, 1384. On John Cornwall and Richard Pencrich, see the paper by Stevenson, W. H., in An English Miscellany, presented to F.J. Furnivall, 1901.

Wood, Anthony. History and Antiquities (Annals) of the University of Oxford. Ed. Gutch, J. 5 vols., Oxford, 1786. Sub an. 1379. Good account, with references.

(2) MANDEVILLE

French version (? oldest) Bibl. Nat. Nouv. Acq. fr. 4515. First printed edition, possibly, was that of Pietro de Cornero, Milan, 1480.

Editions of Cotton MS. (Titus C. XVI). Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Mandeville, 1725, 1727; reprinted, with introduction and notes by Halliwell, J. O., 1839 ff. See also Reliquiae Antiquae, II, II3, for a poem on “the commonyng of Ser John Mandevelle & the great Souden” (c. early 16th cent.), and Hazlitt, W. C., Remains of Early Popular Poetry of England, vol. I, p. 153.

Modernised. The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (with three illustrative narratives). Ed. Pollard, A. W. 1900.

Edition of Egerton MS., 1982. The Buke of John Mandeville. Ed. for Roxburghe Club by Warner, G. F. 1889. With a French version, MS. Harl. 4383, apparently original of Cotton MS. With introduction and notes, on authorship, versions, sources and MSS. The principal authority on Mandeville.

Editions of defective text (as Brit. Mus. Harl. 3954 and others). Pynson (no date), unique copy in Grenville Library, Brit. Mus.; Wynkyn de Worde, 1499, A lytell Treatise or Booke, named John Mandevyll, Knyht, borne in Englande, in the towne of Saynt Abone, and speaketh of the wayes of the Holy Lande toward Jherusalem, and of the Marvyles of Ynde and other diverse Countries; and 1503; Este, 1568; T. Stanby, 1618 ( woodcuts) and many later.

Outremeuse, Jean d’. Ly Myreur des Histors [with La geste de L’ége]. Ed. Borgnet (and Bormans). 6 vols. Brussels, 1864–7. See especially vol. III, p. 57.

For further bibliographical information, see edd. Warner and Halliwell, also Warner in Dictionary of National Biography; Vogels, J., Die ungedruckten lateinischen Versionen Madeviles, Crefeld, 1886; Schönborn, C. G., Bibliographische Untersuchungen über die Reisebeschreibung des Sir J. M., Breslau, 1840; Tobler, T., Bibliographia Geographia Palaestinae, Leipzig, 1867.

Critical Discussions, etc.

Bovenschen. Untersuchungen über J. von Mandevile und Quellen für die Reisebeschreibung des J. v. M. Berlin, 1888.

Cordier, H. T’oung Pao, Archives pour l’histoire.… Vol II. Leyden, 1891. On French editions.

Fife, R. H. Wortschatz des englischen Mandeville nach der Versionen der Cottonhandschrift. Leipzig, 1902.

Leland, J. De Scriptoribus Britannicis contains the anciently accepted errors.

Mätzner, E. Altengl. Sprachproben. Berlin, 1867–9.

Murray, D. John de Burdeus … otherwise Sir J. M. and the Pestilence. Privately pr. Paisley and London, 1891, and in Black Book of Paisley, 1885, for MSS. of John de Bourgogne.

Nicholson, E. B., in Academy, vol. XXV (1884), p. 261, on Bormans; in Bibliophile Belge, 1866, p. 236, on Louis Abry’s quotation from Outremeuse.

Nicholson, E. B. and Yule, H., in Encyclopaedia Britannica. On authorship and sources.

Vogels, J. Handschriftliche Untersuchungen über die englische Versionen Mandeviles. Crefeld, 1891.

Wright, T. Early Travels in Palestine. 1848.

Yule, H. Cathay and the Way Thither. Vol. I. 1866. For Odoric and notes on journeys.

[For examples of the state use of English in the 14th cent. see Rotuli Parliamentorum, II and III.]