This edition, too, was particularly rich in woodcuts, which I have faithfully facsimiled; and, in the Appendix, I have reproduced a few from other editions, showing the different treatment of some subjects. In the Appendix, also, I have given a list of all the editions of Sir John Mandeville's Travels now in the British Museum. A glance at this will show how popular his book was, in all civilized countries, and in all ages, since its first publication.[2] I have thought that an edition should be produced which could be read by all, and therefore have given explanations of words and facts, perfectly familiar to advanced students, by means of which they will not be inconvenienced, and the general reader much benefited. Perhaps the Illustrations in one or two of the early foreign editions are quainter, but I wanted, and have got, a thoroughly representative _English_ Edition, which gives Sir John's adventures, with their concomitant "Travellers' Tales," without the apocryphal stories which were introduced into some of the MSS. and foreign editions. Of East, the printer of the exemplar I have chosen, very little is known; and, curiously, he is ignored in Herbert and Dibdin's edition of _Ames' Typographical Antiquities_. According to Ames, he was made free of the Stationers' Company 3rd December, 1565, and he gives his first known printed book as 1569, or a year later than the book I have copied. East, according to the same authority, was granted a patent for ruled paper for music, and worked both for Bird and Tallis. The date of his death does not seem to be known, but his widow, or daughter, printed a book of Bird's music in 1610. JNO. ASHTON. [Footnote 1: This has again been reprinted in 1884.] [Footnote 2: Colonel Yule, in "The Book of Ser Marco Polo," &c. (1871), says:--"And from the great frequency with which one encounters in catalogues both MSS. and early printed editions of Sir John Maundeville, I should suppose that the lying wonders of our English knight had a far greater popularity and more extensive diffusion than the veracious and more sober marvels of Polo. In Quaritch's last catalogue (November, 1870) there is only one _old_ edition of Polo; there are nine of Maundeville. In 1839 there were nineteen MSS. of the latter _catalogued_ in the British Museum Library. There are _now_ only five of Marco Polo. At least twenty-five editions of Maundeville, and only five of Polo were printed in the fifteenth century."] [Decoration] [Decoration] INTRODUCTION.