The Great Khan's Banqueting Hall, In 'The Travels Of Sir John Mandeville'

The Travels Of Sir John Mandeville' presents itself as an account of China, India, and the Holy Land, written by an Englishman, Sir John Mandeville of St. Albans--who is in fact entirely fictitious. The identity of the true author is not known, but he was probably a mid-14th-century French cleric. The text was available in various versions and various languages, including Latin, French, and Middle English. The dialect of the present manuscript suggests that it was written in East Anglia, perhaps Norfolk. The Great Khan sits at the table at the top of the miniature, with scribes crouching in the arcade below. Tables to either side on a series of steps have ladies to the right, and men to the left, with servants and musicians between the tables and in the foreground with other men and women.