ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the German narrative of the travels of Johann Schiltberger in muslim Asia, its probable oral composition, subsequent compilation, expansion, abridgement and embellishment with woodcut images. The German scholarship on Schiltberger has been concerned with this first-stage recension of his experiences into a manuscript version. Hans-Jochen Schiewer suggests that descriptions of military cruelty are relayed in an emotionally detached tone because Johann Schiltberger was reluctant to admit to his participation in these events as a slave soldier, and therefore adopted a neutral chronicler's stance. Schiltberger had been away from his native Bavaria for 32 years by the time he returned and wrote or dictated his memoirs. In the first two years of his travels, spent attending assemblies that planned war against the Turks. Schiltberger the man travelled for only 30 years in Asia, but his text returned at crucial moments in the history of the book in the early modern era.
