ABSTRACT
The subject of pilgrimage is a major concern of Mandeville's Book, ostensibly an account of Sir John Mandeville's pilgrimage to the Holy Land which almost accidentally develops into a description of the East. This chapter provides an overview of pilgrimage literature, its development and modes, followed by a discussion of the crusades and attitudes towards them, particularly in the course of the fourteenth century. Mandeville himself could be seen primarily as a pilgrim rather than a general traveller, a fact reflected in the way some illustrators chose to portray him. Pilgrimages were originally undertaken in fulfilment of vows, to do penance, to ask for divine aid or from a desire to come closer to the holy figures by physical proximity to the area they had lived in. The Book is explicitly intended as a guide to intending pilgrims, who may expect to be given accurate routes to Jerusalem and accounts of what they will find there.
