Tvoyage van Mher Joos van Ghistele. Frictie tussen feit en fictie

Abstract

SUMMARY: Tvoyage van Mher Joos van Ghistele (1557) is the narrative of a journey made from 1481 until 1485 by Joos van Ghistele (1446-ca. 1520) in the Middle East. It is a remarkable combination of personal observations and scientific information. This article analyses the structure of the narrative, arguing that at least some of the information was added from reports of other travellers and common knowledge. In particular, the author focuses on a passage about the cynocephalus, the mythical monstre, a passage which is shown to have been imported into the narrative from a number of other, authoritative sources.