Albrecht Classen, translator, Der Niederrheinische Orientbericht (An Account of the Oriental World by an Anonymous Low German Writer), c. 1350. Cambridge Boydell & Brewer, 2024, 147 pp.

Albrecht Classen’s translation of the Niederrheinische Orientbericht (An Account of the Oriental World by An Anonymous Low German Writer) offers an invaluable contribution to the canon of medieval travelogues available in modern-day language. Classen’s method of research and translation of the Orientbericht attests to the value of turning to original manuscripts in scholarship. As Classen explains quite clearly in the introduction, this text provides a basis for comparison of other similar accounts from the time, including those of Marco Polo and John Mandeville. But unlike these other travelogues, this text constitutes, in Classen’s words, “a learned report of the Near and Middle East.” Classen emphasizes the influence that diplomacy as well as extended time spent abroad had on the anonymous German author’s text, distinguishing it from more economically or religiously concerned travel accounts like Polo’s or that of the famous Franciscan missionary Odorico da Pordenone. Medieval scholars as well as anyone more broadly interested in travel or the Middle Ages will find the text edifying and fascinating.