SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE

SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE, English adventurer, named of St. Albans, who from his own account travelled over thirty years in the East, and wrote a narrative of the marvels he experienced in a book of voyages and travels published in 1356; the authorship of this book has been questioned, but on this point there is no doubt that, as Professor Saintsbury says, "it is the first book of belles-lottres in English prose."