The Journey of William of Rubruck

Today's task: The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1253-55 (Kessinger Publishing, 2009)

I'm going to be honest with you here. I find William of Rubruck to be a rather distasteful man. I don't know what it is - something in his tone, no doubt. While it must take tremendous character and intrepidity to bring the Word of God all the way to Mangu Chan, the voice that carries across the centuries through this account is not a voice I find it easy to like or respect.

Anyway, that's just fine, because I don't need to respect him to find him useful. He did at least have this much sense:

"...it seemed to me, as I said before, that I had been transported into another world" (83).

Most plant references in Rubruck's text are pretty utilitarian. The majority reference millet, wine, food and drink, with little to no natural history or commentary on the botany/ecology of the lands he passes through. He gives some simple trade information - like Mandeville, the merchandise but not its worth, its consumers or its market.

Plants do figure on several occasions as points of comparison (X here is like Y at home), and while Rubruck does discuss the importance of agriculture, it is without moralizing. That is, people who do not practice agriculture are inferior, but they are not evil or immoral. This distinction, drawn by Mandeville, is one I find interesting and oddly logical (though by those standards, one might - and did - assume that my people were evil and immoral).

The most interesting botanical passage to my mind refers to rhubarb and its properties as a medicinal and supernatural curative. While the spiritual and medicinal are firmly parted ("Either go as an apostle doing real miracles . . . or do as a physician in accordance with medical art" [216]), the botanical is portrayed by Rubruck at different parts of the text as intrinsic to each one - a bridge, as it were.

At any rate, while I can make myself imagine limited borrowing by Mandeville in terms of Rubruck's plants, it is very minimal. Though he clearly relies on Rubruck for other aspects of his narrative, I fail to see the exchange of a bouquet of posies or anything else significantly plant-related between the two authors.


In any event, here is an index of botanical references for my edition of Rubruck:

Agriculture -- 134
Almond -- 67, 206
Apple -- 65
Art -- 54
Bean -- 95
Bough -- 211
Briar -- 133, 172
Cotton -- 44, 52, 70, 71, 201
Flour -- 68
Forest -- 51, 70, 92, 99, 158, 179
Fruit -- 48, 86, 103, 105, 143, 206, 212, 224, 242
Garden -- 134
Grains -- 221
Grapes -- 135, 262
Herbs -- 156
Medicine -- 156, 192, 216
Millet -- 62, 68, 98, 132, 169, 183, 186, 202, 221
Nomadism -- 53
Pasture -- 53, 92, 111, 117, 259
Pear -- 65
Plant technology -- 53, 55, 70, 71, 73, 195, 201, 208, 212, 147, 270, 272
Prune -- 206
Raisin -- 206
Rhubarb -- 192, 216
Rice -- 62, 166, 173, 186, 199
Rye -- 97, 98
Spices -- 44
Tree -- 128, 204, 208, 212, 247
Wheat -- 98
Whey -- 67
Wilderness -- 92, 118
Wine -- 48, 83, 86, 90, 102, 103, 105, 166, 173, 186, 194, 199, 206, 208, 242, 262, 266
Woods -- 133
Wormwood -- 172