Benjamin of Tudela
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Accordingly, Benjamin, a Jew of Tudela, who penetrated through Persia to the frontiers of China, about the middle of the twelfth century, and Marco Polo, a Venetian nobleman, who visited the same regions a hundred years afterwards, related in the account of their travels many marvellous and romantic stories. The work of Mandeville was translated in the fifteenth century into almost all the languages of the continent, and was published in the collection of Ramusio. At the same time the Mirabilia mundi of Solinus, which contains many wonderful relations in the style of the Voyages Imaginaires, was early translated into French, and became a popular work. "--History of Fiction (1814) by John Colin Dunlop |
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Benjamin of Tudela was a medieval Navarrese adventurer (sometimes called "Rabbi") who traveled through Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th century. His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years. With his broad education and vast knowledge of languages, Benjamin of Tudela is a major figure in medieval geography and Judaism.
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