Talk:John Mandeville

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Middle Ages Portal John Mandeville is part of WikiProject Middle Ages, a project for the community of Wikipedians who are interested in the Middle Ages. For more information, see the project page and the newest articles.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.
Article Grading: The article has not been rated for quality and/or importance yet. Please rate the article and then leave comments here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.
WikiProject Middle Ages To do:

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, now in the public domain.

A quote contains the phrase: "and translated it a3en out of Frensche into Englyssche"

Is the three intended to be a yogh, making it meaning "and translated it again out of French into English" (a modern English rendering)? If so, it should probably be changed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by VincentValentine29 (talk • contribs) 18:13, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

I went ahead and changed the three to a yogh. VincentValentine29 (talk) 16:16, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Descendants?

An anon IP with no other contribution added the sentence, "Though some dispute his existence his descendents do not."

First, if he had people who were clearly descendents, there would be no dispute as to his existence.

Second, nobody really disputes his existence--clearly some man wrote this collection of travel stories, some his own and some plagiarised.

My guess is that, if this wasn't a joke or random vandalism, it was added either by some person with bizarre mystical/orientalist beliefs, or by someone with an axe to grind about some inheritance that was stolen centuries ago with the loss of Aquitaine or something of the sort. --75.36.136.207 (talk) 20:09, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

I tagged it as citation needed because it also struck me as odd. Your first point is spot on. I think the point of his "existence" is more that we do not know who he is specifically, and the person who wrote the tales could have been anyone. Thus, those who claim to be his descendants are trying to say that it really was a "Sir John Mandeville" and not a different person. Just my two cents. VincentValentine29 (talk) 20:21, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but I've never heard of anyone claiming to be his descendents. I searched and couldn't find any references anywhere to anything remotely similar. It was either a crackpot or a vandal, and I doubt he'll ever be here again. If the sentence actually said something coherent, I'd say leave it for a while just in case, but as it stood, it was both nonsensical and nonsequitur. --75.36.139.148 (talk) 10:44, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

I concur. VincentValentine29 (talk) 12:38, 23 February 2008 (UTC)