Four manuscripts of the work are known, designated "Z", "N", "R" and "S". A manuscript copy of the , once owned by the 16th-century historian
Jerónimo Zurita y Castro, and subsequently held by the count of San Clemente in
Zaragoza, was reported lost sometime around 1680. It is believed this was the manuscript that resurfaced in London in 1978, popularly known as Manuscript "Z", currently held by the
Bavarian State Library in
Munich, as "Cod.hisp. 150". This manuscript, written in the late 14th century, is replete with miniature
illuminations drawn by an
Aragonese illustrator. A
facsimile was published in 1999. In the introduction to that edition, editor Lacarra doubts the original c.1350 dating, and proposes instead that the was probably composed a bit later, probably around 1385. Manuscripts "N" and "R" are kept in the
British Library. A further manuscript of the was discovered in 1874 and compiled and published in 1877 in
Madrid, by Marcos Jiménez de la Espada. This is the most complete of the extant copies, known as Manuscript "S", kept in the
Spanish National Library. In his introduction, the editor presented the book as an authentic travelogue of a Castilian
Franciscan mendicant friar written around 1350. However, immediately upon its appearance, contemporary scholars (not without a touch of mockery at the editor) noted the travelogue was largely fantastical and imaginary, and that there was no clear indication that the author was a friar, Franciscan or otherwise. ==Notes==