4:30 p.m.– 6 p.m.

Lecture by Marek Zágora. Only in Czech.

The British Library in London holds a unique fragment of a manuscript consisting of 28 full-page illuminations on 14 parchment sheets, without any text. It was not until the end of the 19th century that scholars discovered what the manuscript was: a book known as “Mandeville’s Travels”, with its ornamentation created in Prague between 1410 and 1420. The work was one of the most popular texts of the Late Middle Ages – it was even more popular the Marco Polo’s “Million”. It was soon translated into most European languages. Sir John Mandeville is still a mysterious figure. From the text, he appears to have been an English or French knight-adventurer who lived in the 14th century. His text describes his travels from France via Jerusalem to Persia, the Caucasus, India and China. For centuries he was considered to be a highly educated scholar-traveller, an explorer who “discovered” the wider world. All this changed in the 19th century, when his manuscript was found to be “merely” a very skilled compilation. Despite this fact, however, it remains a fascinating and inspirational work.

The lecture will be streamed live on Facebooku and the gallery’s YouTube channel.

Booking advance necessary  

free entrance