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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 78: CAP. LXX.
By Sir John Mandeville
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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. LXX.

Of the great Caanes letters and the wryting about his seale.

NOW when he had wonne the lande of Cathay he dyed, and then raigned after Cythoco1 the eldest sonne of Caane, & his other brothers went to winne them landes in other countreys, and they wan the land of Pruisse, and of Russy & they dyd cal themselfe Caane, but he of Cathay is the greatest lorde of all the worlde and so he called him in his letters and sayth thus, Caane filius dei excelsi, universam terram coulentium summus imperator, & dominus dominantium That is to say, Caane Gods son, Emperour of all those that tyll all the lande, and Lorde of all lordes. And the writing about his great seale is, Deus in celo & Caane super terram ejus fortitudo omnium hominum imperatoris sigillum That is to say, God in heaven, Caan uppon earth, his strength the seale of the Emperor of all men. And the wryting about his privy seale is, Dei fortitudo omnium hominum imperatoris sigillum That is to say, The strength of God, seale of the Emperour of all men. And if it be so that they be not christen, yet the Emperour and the Tartarins beleve in God Almightie.

1:  In other editions Ecchecha. In reality, Ok-lar-Khan, who succeeded his father in 1229, and reigned over the Tartars till 1241.