“An intrepid and thorough explanation for the myriad uses medieval writers found for accounts of their adventures.”

Times Literary Supplement

“Before planes, railways, or steamships, [travel] was inseparable from its etymological twin, travail—both derived from the name of an ancient Roman instrument of torture. . . . Yet travel, for all its hardships, fascinated medieval readers: the most celebrated poems of the age are both travel narratives. . . . An engaging book.”

London Review of Books

“This is an extremely ambitious and accomplished piece of work. Drawing connections among different subgenres, Legassie develops a comprehensive, densely historicized, and theoretically sophisticated argument that moves the study of medieval travel writing into new, unexplored territory.”

Steven F. Kruger, Queens College and Graduate Center, City University of New York

“Legassie has written an ambitious, wide-ranging book that challenges the traditional periodization of this field.” 

Choice

“Shayne Aaron Legassie’s first monograph is a bold, refreshing, well-researched, and well-written take on his subject. . . . Thoughtful and stimulating . . . . Surefooted . . . . He tells us a compelling new story about the writing and culture of travel in the later Middle Ages and their hitherto-unrecognized modes of connectivity with prior and later eras, all without lapsing into a teleological narrative. This volume is likely to become essential reading for scholars and students in the field.”
 

Renaissance Quarterly

“Legassie’s The Medieval Invention of Travel evinces that travel writing from 1200 to 1500 was erudite, studious, and original. His book has the same admirable qualities, all convincingly and clearly presented, sometimes playfully. . . . Well worth reading.”

The Medieval Review

"Legassie admirably unpacks the variety and complexity of medieval travel narratives....Through the lens of travel narratives, Legassie totally dismantles any assumption of the Middle Ages’ 'aversion to empiricism, its disinterest in individual experience, and its dogmatic fixation of theological authority'."

American Historical Review

"The Medieval Invention of Travel is valuable primarily for its often insightful and persuasive readings of a broad range of canonical texts that shaped the history of medieval travel literature...[T]he focus on the impact of literacy and literary practices....produces intriguing new perspectives and insights."

Speculum

"The Medieval Invention of Travel is a stimulating book that opens new lines of inquiry in the field of medieval travel, confirming the importance of this field for examining the evolution of European epistemologies through their interaction with geographic distance and cultural alterity. It will be a valuable reading for those interested in medieval travel literature, pilgrimage, post-medieval travel, epistemological changes in late medieval Europe, and anthropological approaches to cross-cultural exchanges in the premodern world."

Luis Miguel dos Santos | Medieval Encounter

"The book is successful in achieving its aims and does open some interesting avenues for future research... there is much that is stimulating about this book and it does well to outline innovative models for understanding the way in which European writers invented an idea of travel in the Middle Ages."

Philip Booth | EHR