Book of the Knowledge of All the Kingdoms, Lands, and Lordships That Are in the World, and the Arms and Devices of Each Land and Lordship, or of the Kings and Lords Who Possess Them: Written by a Spanish Franciscan in the Middle of the XIV Century, edited by Marcos Jímenez de la Espada

Rapid-fire medieval travelogue of nations, cities, and flags

Written by an unknown Spanish Franciscan friar around the year 1360, Book of the Knowledge of All the Kingdoms, Lands, and Lordships That are in the World . . . (the title goes on) was first published in 1877 by Marcos Jímenez de la Espada, a Spanish explorer and zoologist who edited and annotated the original manuscript. The book was then translated into English by Sir Clements Markham and published in 1912 by the Hakluyt Society, a British organization devoted to publishing the historic accounts of explorers and world travelers. The unknown Franciscan was indeed a world traveler of the first order, if his account is to be believed, as the voyages he recounts in this volume took him all over Europe, Africa, and Asia to just about every nation in the known world at that time.

The manuscript is not dated, but the editors were able to establish a date of 1350 to 1360 based on historical events and the reign of monarchs discussed in the narrative. The Franciscan gives a very rapid-fire account of his extensive travels. Most of the text is a string of names of nations, kingdoms, and cities visited. He ends his account of each kingdom with a description of its flag. Given the many thousands of miles covered, this is a brief and not very detailed travelogue, but the Franciscan does manage to work in some fascinating details about the lands visited and their histories. In the book’s introduction, Markham explains that it is difficult to tell whether the Franciscan actually visited all the nations he discusses or if some are described from second-hand information. The narrative is certainly not entirely factual, as it does include some biblical and legendary content, such as references to Prester John, Gog and Magog, a race of headless people with faces in their chests (akephaloi) or “long faces like dogs” (cynocephali), and an earthly paradise at the Antarctic pole. One pleasantly surprising aspect of the book is the medieval author’s lack of racism in describing the myriad peoples of the world.

In addition to the verbal narrative of the Book of the Knowledge, the Franciscan also sketched the flags or arms of all the nations he visited. (I assume the images included in the 1912 edition are not his original drawings but rather reproductions cleaned up for publication.) In the field of vexillology (the study of flags), this is the earliest comprehensive source on flags of the world. When National Geographic published their special flag issue in October 1917 they included an article on this book and its flag drawings. Because the Franciscan’s travel narrative is so brief, and only provides a few sentences on each of the destinations visited, the flags may be the most valuable historical resource in this manuscript.

Many of the place names in the book are unrecognizable today because they are antiquated or misspelled, but that adds medieval color to the reading experience. For example, Ungria is Hungary; Catayo is Cathay, another name for China; the Himalaya are referred to as the Caspian Mountains; the Caspian Sea is the Sea of Sara. In most cases the editor’s notes clarify the locations referred to by the Franciscan, although the identity of some are undetermined. The Hakluyt edition is about 180 pages, but the Franciscan’s travelogue is only 62 pages, plus 20 pages of images, the rest being the introduction, indexes, and a catalog of other Hakluyt publications. This book can be downloaded for free in pdf format from HathiTrust. Geography buffs will enjoy it, especially those with a particular interest in flags and their history.
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One of twenty plates in the book: