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's engaging book concentrates on three kinds of travel, and on the literary records inspired by each: exotic voyages to the Far East, pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and European journeys undertaken for self-betterment, anticipating the 18th-century Grand Tour.
London Review of Books Legassie has written an ambitious, wide-ranging book that challenges the traditional periodization of this field.
Choice An intrepid and thorough explanation for the myriad uses medieval writers found for accounts of their adventures.
Times Literary Supplement 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 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 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