Global Medieval Travel Writing: A Literary History

Global Medieval Travel Writing: A Literary History, edited by Sebastian Sobecki and contracted by Cambridge University Press, will be published in 2023. This will be the first pan-European, Middle Eastern, and global guide through the bewildering maze of early travel narratives. Each chapter will be written by a leading specialist in their geographical area. At the same time, the geographical scope of this collection, with chapters on travel writing produced by Persian, Arabic, and Chinese writers, will challenge Western periodisation and the term ‘medieval’. Using the dates 1200 and 1550 CE as boundaries for a global period of intercultural and intercontinental contact, the volume (despite its combined European and Middle Eastern centre) will not attempt to interpret ‘medieval’ beyond marking a chronological spectrum. Individual chapters will pay particular attention to questions of gender, manuscript transmission, and language choice and multilingualism.