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Title details for A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages by Anthony Bale - Available

A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages

The World Through Medieval Eyes

by Anthony Bale
Esh Alladi
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
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2 of 2 copies available

Brought to you by Penguin.
From the medieval souks of Tabriz, to the mysterious island of Caldihe, where sheep were said to grow on trees, Anthony Bale brings history alive in A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages, inviting the reader to travel across a medieval world punctuated with miraculous wonders and long-lost landmarks.
Journeying alongside scholars, spies and saints, from western Europe to the Far East and the Antipodes, this is no ordinary travel guide. From profane pilgrim badges and Venetian laxatives to encounters with bandits and trysts with mysterious medieval witches, this book mixes fact and folklore to offer an entertaining encyclopaedia of wondrous stories and peoples.
Using previously untranslated contemporary accounts from as far and wide as Turkey, Iceland, Armenia, north Africa, and Russia, A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages blurs the distinction between real and imagined places, offering the reader a vivid and unforgettable insight into how medieval people understood their world.
©2023 Anthony Bale (P)2023 Penguin Audio

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 2, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780241642689
      • File size: 321096 KB
      • Duration: 11:08:56

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 11, 2023
      Historian Bale (Margery Kempe) draws on medieval European travel guides and travelogues for an informative and entertaining survey of “the practicalities, the pleasantries and the perils” of travel in the Middle Ages. Travelers who journeyed by foot, ship, and horseback encountered a landscape of monuments and ruins before reaching bustling European cities like London and Rome, or more distant destinations such as Constantinople and Jerusalem. Though the travel guides were not always completely accurate, they included sound advice (always carry a staff and bag, preferably blessed by a priest before departure; travel in groups for safety; bring sufficient coin for tolls, fees, and other expenses; use good manners in taverns; and prepare a last will and testament before leaving) as well as fanciful tales (airborne cats; trees that grow gems for the taking; and repeated warnings about cannibalism). Beyond human curiosity and wanderlust, the medieval traveler was motivated by religious pilgrimages, economic opportunities, and political intrigue, all of which receive attention in Bale’s vibrant profiles of various historical travelers, including Rabban Bar Sauma, a Mongol Christian and emissary whose Eastern perspective of Western life presents a welcome departure from the Eurocentric view. Medieval history buffs will relish this.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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