ABSTRACT
Along general lines, Sir John Mandeville's importance as a pilgrimage writer had diminished significantly in the Renaissance, giving way to a greater influence in the fields of geography and exploration. Mandeville's primary aim was to construct a pilgrimage narrative - one not limited to the confines of the Holy Land but encompassing the whole globe and its inhabitants. Mandeville's satirical condemnation of the Catholic Church and Western European morals was certainly appreciated, from the Book's inception to the Reformation. The Book became a more-or-less reliable 'tourist' or pilgrim guide, a Latinised moral diatribe, a scholarly scientific journal, an amusing collection of semi-legendary tales, a heroic nationalistic statement, a respected historical source and a general fount of interesting information of all kinds. At a time when intellectuals had come to see the Book as a pack of geographical lies, the name and work of Mandeville were viewed completely differently at another level of society.
