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The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight / Which treateth of the way towards Hierusalem and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys cover

The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight / Which treateth of the way towards Hierusalem and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys

Chapter 25: CAP. XVII.
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About This Book

The narrator offers a medieval travelogue that traces routes toward Jerusalem and across regions of Asia, Africa, and India, blending eyewitness-style observations, borrowed reports, and fantastic tales. It catalogs cities, landscapes, animals, plants, trade goods, and unfamiliar customs, alternating itinerary notes with moral and religious commentary. Frequent digressions present marvels and monstrous races alongside practical details about pilgrim routes, local rites, and fortifications, producing a text that shifts between guidebook information and imaginative storytelling. The structure mixes descriptive chapters with episodic anecdotes, inviting readers to weigh veracity while encountering the era's geographical knowledge, commerce, and popular curiosities.

CAP. XVII.

Fro Bethlehem.

FROM Ebron men go to Bethlehem in halfe a daye, for it is but five myle, and it is a fayre waye & thorow1 woddes full pleasaunt. Bethlem is but a little citie long and narowe, and well walled, and enclosed with a great diche and it was wont to be called Effrata as holy wryte sayth Ecce audivimus eum in Effrata &c., That is to saye, Lo we herde him in Effrata. And toward the ende of the citie toward the East, is a ryght fayre churche and a gracious and it hath many toures, pinacles and kirnelles2 full strongly made & within that Church is xliiii great pyllers of marble & betwene this church the field3 florished, as ye shall here.

1:  Through woods.

2:  Battlements.

3:  The flowered field.