“Cynocephali” from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville

This early description of a journey to the East, which acquired widespread fame under the name of John Mandeville, was actually compiled by an anonymous author writing at some point in the middle of the 14th century. This manuscript contains the German translation by Michael Felser written in 1459, well before the first printed edition in 1481. Composed as a sort of travel memoir, the fabricated story purports to be the firsthand account of John Mandeville, a knight from St. Albans in the south of England, who in 1332 set off on a journey to the Holy Land and then traveled on to Asia and Africa. Among his many encounters was this one with the so-called cynocephali, humanoid beings he described as combining qualities of men and dogs.