Memoirs About a Dragon Who Meowed Like a Cat and About the Ruby on the Crown of Saint Wenceslas that was as Big as a Ripe Date
2010
Abstract
Bertrandon de la Broquiere, the spy of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, underwent a long pilgrimage in the Holy Land and Turkey during 1432-1433, which he described some twenty years later in "Le voyage d''outre mer". Despite his primary task to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor in espionage Guillebert de Lannoy, he focused more on the real Moslems, esp.
Turks, and portrayed some of them in conspicuously sympathetic ways, with comprehension to cultural differences. Many of the stories from Bertrandon''s notes represent a source of knowledge of the pan-European cotext of Czech history in the Hussite times.