It is not the first time that the names Jean de Mandeville and Jean a la Barbe are to be met with, as Ortelius, in his description of Liege, included in his Itinerary of Belgium, has given the epitaph of the knightly physician:[37(1)]

“Leodium primo aspectu ostentat in sinistra ripa (nam dextra vinetis plena est,) magna, & populosa suburbia ad collium radices, in quorum iugis multa sunt, & pulcherrima Monasteria, inter quae magnificum illud ac nobile D. Laurentio dicatum ab Raginardo episcopo, vt habet Sigebertus, circa ann. sal.  M XXV aedificatum est in hac quoq. regione Guilelmitaru Coenobium in quo epitaphiu hoc Ioannis a Mandeuille excepimus:  Hic iacet vir nobilis Dns Ioes de Mandeville al Dcus ad barbam miles dns de Capdi natus de Anglia medicie pfessor deuotissimus orator et bonorum largissimus paupribus erogator qui toto quasi orbe lustrato leodii diem vite sue clausit extremum ano Dni M CCC deg.  LXXI deg.[37(2)] mensis novebr die XVII.[37(3)]

“Haec in lapide, in quo caelata viri armati imago, leonem calcantis, barba bifurcata, ad caput manus benedicens, & vernacula haec verba:  vos ki paseis sor mi pour lamour deix proies por mi.  Clypeus erat vacuus, in quo olim laminam fuisse dicebant aeream, & eius in ea itidem caelata insignia, leonem videlicet argenteum, cui ad pectus lunula rubea, in campo caeruleo, quem limbus ambiret denticulatus ex auro, eius nobis ostendebat & cultros, ephippiaque, & calcaria, quibus vsum fuisse asserebat in peragrando toto fere terrarum orbe, vt clarius eius testatur itinerarium, quod typis etiam excusum passim habetur."[37]

Dr. Warner writes in the National Biography: 

“There is abundant proof that the tomb of the author of the Travels was to be seen in the Church of the Guillemins or Guillelmites at Liege down to the demolition of the building in 1798.  The fact of his burial there, with the date of his death, 17th November, 1372, was published by Bale in 1548 (Summarium f. 149 b), and was confirmed independently by Jacob Meyer (Annales rerum Flandric. 1561, p. 165) and Lud.  Guicciardini. (Paesi Bassi, 1567, p. 281.)”

In a letter dated from Bodley’s Library, 17th March, 1884, to The Academy, 12th April, 1884, No. 623, Mr. Edward B. Nicholson drew attention to the abstract from Jean d’Ontremeuse, and came to the conclusion that the writer of Mandeville’s relation was a profound liar, and that he was the Liege Professor of Medicine, John of Burgundy or a la Barbe.  He adds:  “If, in the matter of literary honesty, John a Beard was a bit of a knave, he was very certainly no fool.”

On the other hand, M. Leopold Delisle,[38] has shown that two manuscripts, Nouv. acq. franc. 4515 (Barrois, 24) and Nouv. acq. franc. 4516 (Barrois, 185), were part formerly of one volume copied in 1371 by Raoulet of Orleans and given in the same year to King Charles V. by his physician Gervaise Crestien, viz. one year before the death of the so-called Mandeville; one of these manuscripts—­now separate—­contains the Book of Jehan de Mandeville, the other one, a treatise of “la preservacion de epidimie, minucion ou curacion d’icelle faite de maistre Jehan de Bourgoigne, autrement dit a la Barbe, professeur en medicine et cytoien du Liege,” in 1365.  This bringing together is certainly not fortuitous.