Plano Carpini Research Articles

Chinggis Khan Defeated: Plano Carpini, Jūzjānī and the Symbolic Origins of the Mongol Empire

AbstractThis article aims to clarify an obscure passage in Plano Carpini's text, and subsequently in C. de Bridia's one, referring to a crushing defeat of Chinggis Khan, which has so far not been identified with certainty. The record of such a defeat is found in identical terms under the pen of Jūzjānī, and it actually appears that this strange narrative follows the pattern of the Mongol myth of origin, which is also common to the myths of the Türks, of the Kimeks and others. Here the argument is made that these accounts written outside the Mongol territory are therefore not only the result of confusion and distortion, contrary to what has long been thought. They testify to the existence of a legend of Chinggis Khan, built in an imperial propaganda effort directed at all the nomadic subjects of the Mongol Empire, and which placed the birth of the empire and the story of the origins contained in the myth on the same symbolic level.

Die Bewältigung der Welt

Summary Coping with the World. How Medieval Latin Authors Described the Size and Density of World’s Population This paper takes a dual approach to the topic of medieval demographic thinking between the 13th and 15th century. In a first step, the analysis focusses on travel accounts (e. g. those of John of Plano Carpini, William of Rubruk and Marco Polo) and their depiction of foreign regions and populations. Many Latin Christian travellers shared the impression that the Mongolian steppe was only sparsely populated, quite in contrast to the urban centres in eastern China, which they described in great detail. While most travellers were fascinated by the densely populated areas of the East, other authors and cartographers (e. g. Bartholomeus Anglicus, Roger Bacon, Andreas Walsperger), who did not travel themselves, reacted rather pusillanimously. The paper analyses their rather theoretical statements in a second step. It shows that the huge number of Non-Christians worried those who stayed back. They felt that ‘Christianity’ was under threat. Even more, they equated Christianity with Europe and compared ‘their’ part of the earth to the (infidel) continents of Africa and Asia. Thus, the knowledge that the travellers gained on their journeys was stripped of its admiring character and condensed into a much more negative and anxious point of view. The empirical experience might have given the impulse to think afresh about the distribution of the population of the world, but it was not necessary for the interpretation of this observation. The paper serves as a case study about how knowledge was adapted and interpreted in quite different contexts.

The Medieval Invention of Travel by Shayne Aaron Legassie

Reviewed by: The Medieval Invention of Travel by Shayne Aaron Legassie Anna Wilson shayne aaron legassie, The Medieval Invention of Travel. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017. Pp. xiii, 302. isbn: 978–0–226–44662–2. $34.95. This ambitious book surveys western European travel literature from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, tracing the emergence in the medieval period of several styles, themes, and ethics of travel that would shape subsequent travel literatures until the industrial revolution. Legassie makes an argument for a distinct medieval genre of travel literature that includes two mutually influential strands: accounts of pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and of journeys to the far east for missionary purposes or trade. The methodology is primarily literary-critical, but there is a strong book history element throughout, wherein Legassie highlights specific material instances of works [End Page 115] in order to enhance close readings or to discuss the circulation and use of ideas about travel. The story this book tells is broadly one of historical development of the travel literature genre prior to its oft-presumed emergence with the early modern European colonial expansions; however, Legassie avoids a teleological narrative in favor of a 'rhizomatic' survey, making the important but frequently overlooked point that 'developments accrete and—at times—coexist unharmoniously' in this as in so many literary genres (p. 143). As such, the study is divided into three parts linked by theme rather than location in time or space. Part one focuses on constructions of narrative authority. Chapter one traces the differing approaches to the 'prestige economy of long-distance knowledge' (p. 22)—a concept Legassie develops in conversation with anthropologist Mary Helms' 'long-distance specialist'—in Marco Polo's Divisament dou monde and William of Rubruck's Itinerarium. Chapter two argues for an increasing emphasis on the labor and physical trials of travel by authors who apparently feared that their narratives might strain the credulity of their medieval readers; texts discussed here include John of Plano Carpini's Historia Mongolorum, Odoric of Pordenone's Relatio, and The Book of John Mandeville. Part two is a valuable and extensive survey of medieval pilgrimage literature, including clerical- and non-clerical narratives, Jerusalem Inventories, and logs or diaries. In chapter four, Legassie argues that these texts attest to a sophisticated mnemonic praxis—he draws heavily on Carruthers' classic studies on memory—through which pilgrimage becomes 'literate labor.' In what Legassie names 'the synthetic tradition' of (largely clerical) pilgrimage accounts, the composition of the text is part of the devotional work of pilgrimage, accomplished through 'memory work' before, during, and after the journey. The readings of these texts complement, but would benefit from greater engagement with, recent scholarship on 'virtual travel' or pilgrimage meditation by scholars such as Anthony Bale and Kathryn Rudy. Chapter five tackles the role of empirical observation in pilgrimage literature, tracing the rise in interest in writers' investigative methods for determining the history of places and objects in the Holy Land, and the rise of the 'Mediterranean turn' wherein places on the way to the Holy Land and the journey itself become subjects of scrutiny. Part three enters into the divergent styles of travel emerging post-1300, with a chapter on Petrarch and a chapter on Pero Tafur. Legassie's reading of Petrarch's travel letters in Familiares I–V and his Itinerarium reveals Petrarch's careful curation of a narrative arc that encompasses his change from an optimistic to jaded attitude to the ethical value of travel, corresponding to his changing political attitudes to Italian nationalism, and to his rejection of vernacular poetical modes for Latin epic. Legassie's intriguing approach to Petrarch's epistolary work as 'diasporic' rather than 'exilic' makes this a valuable addition to scholarship on Petrarch's relatively understudied travel letters. Chapter seven brings to the fore a theme which has run through much of the other travel literature Legassie discusses: concern with the ethics of travel. In Pero Tafur's fifteenth-century travel narrative, this concern is played out in the tension between the text's need to present Muslim lands as hostile territories in order to enhance the dramatic daring of its hero, and its investment...

ҚАЗАҚСТАНДАҒЫ ТУРИЗМНІҢ ДАМУ ТАРИХЫ

The development of tourism is one of the most important issues of the world economy as one of the main trends of the world economy. The article considers the main development of tourism and tourism in Kazakhstan, water, skiing, bicycles, cars, education, medicine and healthcare, the history of tourismdevelopment, religious pilgrimages, protection of natural landscapes and attractions, and considers the prevention of environmental pollution problems and the development of tourism in the country. Sights and natural resources of Kazakhstan from the very beginning attracted the attention of the whole world. Information about the nature of Kazakhstan is mentioned in the manuscripts of Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD. The book of Herodotus "Father of History" 459 describes the nature of Kazakhstan. Information about the land of Kazakhstan is presented in 628 in Chinese manuscripts of Chan-Chun and Xuan-Zang. In the sixth century, Arab travelers wrote information about the Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea, traveling through the West Kazakhstan region. In the Middle Ages, the Italian travelers Marco Polo, Plano Carpini, Rubrok traveled to Central Asia, Kazakhstan, and left a lot of information about the Kazakh land. The result of Kazakhstan's voluntary accession to Russia in 1731 allowed Russian travelers to continue their study about Kazakhstan. In ]the XVIII century, Peter I organized an expedition to study the nature of the Turkestan region. The organization of travel to Kazakhstan and the conduct of research was highly developed in the XVIII-XX centuries. In the XX century, a study of the land of Kazakhstan was conducted in order to identify the sights of the region and revitalize tourist routes.

John of Plano Carpini vs Simon of Saint-Quentin: 13th-century Emotions in the Eurasian Steppe

John of Plano Carpini vs Simon of Saint-Quentin: 13th-century Emotions in the Eurasian Steppe

Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing, 1245–1510 by Kim M. Phillips

Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing, 1245-1510, by Kim M. Phillips. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. viii, 314 pp. $79.95 US (cloth). In this book, Kim M. Phillips creates cultural history that seeks to redefine current understandings of transnational encounter through close study of travel in late medieval period. She limits her examination to areas now known as Mongolia, China, and Southeast Asia. Phillips' argument centres on ways in which European travel to these of world during late medieval period differed from travel to the Holy Land and surrounding regions (1). As result, her contribution to field is to move scholarship beyond over-simplification of encounters between monolithic east and west that seem in perpetual conflict with one another toward more vibrant discussion about nuances of these encounters. She argues that, rather than imperial endeavours, desire for information and for pleasure were two chief impulses guiding late medieval readers' interest in travel writing on Asia (2). Through her close examination of travel writings in this period, Phillips offers comprehensive study that illuminates various examples in support of her discussion. Phillips begins her study with refreshing reflection on Edward Orientalism (New York, 1978). While Phillips joins in recent criticisms of book, she also reminds her readers that Said's concept has had wide utility and application when treated as tool for interpreting certain western of subjected cultures, especially in literature and visual arts (16). Her discussion of work--a great strength in her book--notes that while medievalists have interrogated claims in context of Latin Christendom's treatment of Islamic societies, current scholarship fails to consider relationship of former to other Asian regions. If we consider this dynamic, Phillips suggests, we may see how position that existence of a distinction between an authentic geographical location and its ideological construction in western representations (16) emerges within late medieval travel writing. Stories about wonders of orient or existence of monsters seeped into travellers' consciousnesses, becoming the object(s) of European horror, pleasure, or admiration for readers of travel writing (20). Phillips works diligently throughout her text to demonstrate how these responses to existing beliefs about orient--particularly in Far East--did not result in or create imperial motives. In same chapter On Orientalism, Phillips discusses how, contrary to British explorers of eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, [m]edieval travelers and pseudo-travelers rarely lumped diverse oriental cultures together or resorted to overarching caricatures (22). She offers examples to this end throughout her book. The chapter Food and Foodways discusses how certain staples in country's cuisine depended largely on availability, as in John of Plano Carpini's assessment of infertility of Mongolian lands and subsequent absence of fruits (75). …

Misunderstanding the Mongols: Intercultural Communication in Three Thirteenth-Century Franciscan Travel Accounts

Abstract This article shows how the travel accounts of three thirteenth-century Franciscan friars provide a window into intercultural communications of the medieval world. The three accounts were written by John of Plano Carpini (1245–47), William of Rubruck (1253–55), and John of Montecorvino (1289). Each of the friars traveled from Europe to the Mongol Empire. The article has two themes: first, how the friars’ encounters with new lands, peoples, and cultures prompted them to reconsider, but ultimately not recast, their vocational identities; second, how their participation in long-distance networks reinforced their assumptions about Christianity and human nature.

Taboos related to food culture at the 13th–14th-century Mongols

This article reviews the characteristics of terms used by the Mongols to express taboos concerning food and examines their food-related culture based on sources from the Mongolian Empire (Plano Carpini’s Historia Mongalorum, Marco Polo’s Il milione, Chinggis Khan’s Yeke Jasag, Rashīd ad-Dīn’s Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh, and the Yuan Dynasty’s 飮食須知 Yin shi xu zhi). The Mongols left behind fairly strict food-related taboos in the form of eating habits. To better understand Mongolia’s food-related taboo expressions, we have examined five mediaeval sources written in various languages in which diverse food taboos are recorded.

Globalizing Imperium: Thirteenth‐Century Perspectives on the Mongols

AbstractThis paper investigates thirteenth‐century perspectives on Mongol imperium from different parts of the world, by comparing Franciscan John of Plano Carpini's *History of the Mongols* and the anonymous *Secret History of the Mongols*, considered the authoritative history of the empire by an anonymous Mongol author close to the imperial family. In the thirteenth century, Mongol ascendency in the East facilitated direct farreaching trade, communication, and exchange between various parts of the world unparalleled before in human history. While globalization did not exist then in the same way that it does today, I term the reach of the Mongol imperium “global” in the sense that it enabled, on an unprecedented scale, the amazing circulation of people and exchange of ideas between different regions, cultures, and communities in the East and West. Yet at the same time that they made world order and transformed history, contemporary observers of the nomads from different civilizations characterized them as the Other. My paper investigates the characterization of the Mongols as the paradoxical embodiment of savagery and absolute power from perspectives in both the East and West in this global context. It suggests that the Mongols offered a model of absolute rule and imperial dominance that resonated with non‐nomadic observers and permutated from East to West in the global thirteenth century.

The Mongols, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe: The Mirabilia Tradition in Benedict of Poland's Historia Tartarorum and John of Plano Carpini's Historia Mongalorum

AbstractJohn of Plano Carpini's Historia Mongalorum and Benedict of Poland's Historia Tartarorum were inspired by the Marvels of the East tradition recorded in, respectively, Italy and Poland in Latin. Historia de proellis was a text that influenced Polish scholars the most, and it was ultimately translated into Polish in the 16th century. The first translator was Leonard of Bończa, and the other, more competent, translator remains anonymous. Particularly, the later 1550 version focuses on the monstrous races of India. The two ethnographic relations about the 1247 papal mission to the Tartars must have used similar sources when they related the existence of dog heads and other monstrous races in the Tartar territory. The friars' orientalism was more intellectual than ideological, and it was an impediment in their empirical cognition of the East.

Clinical Experience with Therapeutic Vaccines Designed for Patients with Hepatitis

Franciscan missionary Giovanni Di Plano Carpini traveled in 1245 to a country named Yeke Tartar, to visit a certain man called Genghis Khan. His journey's report narrated peculiar dietary habits of the locals: "they eat anything, even lice". Little that Carpini knew, he had actually documented the earliest known to us record of oral vaccination against blood-borne infections - an approach that is still used occasionally in the present-day Mongolia for therapy of hepatitis. Currently, efforts aimed at developing therapeutic hepatitis vaccines have switched to more palatable path, but we may still benefit from the insight of medieval Mongols. This review provides an update on development of hepatitis B and C vaccines as related to immunotherapy of hepatitis. Immune therapy is a fast-moving field but the results so far failed to pitch woo. Current trends in research on therapeutic vaccine candidates and liver immunology are discussed. We subscribe to the idea that viral hepatitis is essentially an autoimmune disease generating immune-mediated liver damage. Therapeutic vaccines need to be designed in such a way that self-destructive immunity of the host is targeted not the virus, which is not cytopathic.

Империя и Космос. Опыт Интерпретации Средневекового Описания Империи Чингисхана

SUMMARY: In his article Alexander Iurchenko analyzes the documents of a papal diplomatic delegation to the Mongol empire of the middle of the thirteenth century, namely Ystoria Mongalorum by John of Plano Carpini and Tatar Relation by C. de Bridia. A textological scrutiny of the documents so rich in fantastic episodes and mysterious symbolism and a comparison of fictitious episodes from those materials with Persian and Arabic cosmographies led the author to conclude that the episodes in question constitute a separate text, which was produced by an unidentified Mongolian author from the educated elite of the empire and recorded by Brother Benedict, who served as an interpreter to the papal mission. This text sheds new light on the level of cultural life and intellectual sophistication of politics in the Mongolian empire, which was regarded before as empire of barbarians. The text itself is a subtle rhetorical game, which draws on official symbols of the Mongolian political tradition and the rich literature of the medieval East in order to subvert the official mythology of the Mongolian empire. The historical episode and literary history of the Mongolian text under analysis raises question as to the traditional views on the creativity of medieval authorship and the cultural cleavage between the Western and Asiatic medieval civilizations.

City names of the western Steppe at the time of the Mongol invasion

Section 274 of the Secret History of the Mongols (Yuanchao bishi) tells us that Khagan Ögödei placed governors over the conquered peoples whose cities were ‘Asud, Sesüd, Bolar and Mankerman-Kiwa’. I present the entire passage, first, in the transliterated edition published in 1972 by Igor de Rachewiltz, then in two English translations, the first by Francis Woodman Cleaves, the second by Rachewiltz:batu büri güyük möngge teri'üten olon kö'üt qanglin kibca'ud-i bajigid-i oro'ulju ejiljayaq meget balaqasu ebdeljü orusud-i kiduju ülüttele talaba asut sestüt bolar man-kerman kiwa teri'üten balaqad-un irgen-i dawuliju else'üljü daruqacin tammacin-i talbiju qariba.

Western Information on the Kitans and Some Related Questions

WHILST MAINTAINING THEIR FEELING OF IDENTITY, over a period of about eight centuries the Kitans twice underwent a remarkable cultural and linguistic metamorphosis. They played a major role on three different regional stages: first in Manchuria (from about the 8th to the 12th century), then in China, under the dynastic name of Liao (907-1115), and finally in Central Asia where, fugitives from China, they succeeded in establishing a third empire, known as Karakitay (the Black Kitay), which lasted for about a century, until 1218. It cannot be my aim to present here, in a capsule, a history of the Kitans; rather, a few remarks pertaining to the disintegration of the Karakitay state should be made. Some modern historians, including myself (1971: 13031) and Bosworth (1978: 583) have tended to present this event as the result of simultaneous attacks by the Naiman prince Kuchliig and Muhammad, Sultan of Khorezm. This view is in need of revision. It is based on Juvaini's statement (Boyle 1958: 64) that [Kiichlig] fell upon him [the gurkhan] like lightning from a cloud, and taking him by surprise made him prisoner and his kingdom and his army. What in fact happened was that, to escape Chinggis Khan's wrath, in 1208 Kuchlug took refuge with the Karakitay, married the giirkhan's daughter, converted to Buddhism, and in 1211 dethroned the giirkhan Chih-lu-ku. Kuchliig staged a palace coup and it was certainly not his intention to destroy the Karakitay state, over which he had just power. The Taoist sage Ch'ang-chun, travelling through the land in 1219, noted that the Naimans seized the land that had sheltered (Waley 1931: 89). In the words of the Liao-shih, Kiichliig assumed the title giirkhan, adopted the dress and customs of Western Liao and made Chih-lu-ku the imperial father and his wife the empress dowager. As long as they lived he attended them every morning and evening [like a respectful son] (Wittfogel 1949: 652). Chih-lu-ku died a natural death in 1213. Peaceful Kitay-Naiman cooperation is implied also by the Franciscan John of Plano Carpini, according to whom (Menestb, in Pian di Carpine: 254) the Naimans and the Karakitay were allies who had been defeated by the Mongols. The date of the end of the Karakitay empire could be set in 1218, when the fleeing Kichliig was killed by the Mongols. This is the date given also by Paolo Daffina in his commentary on Plano Carpini's text (Menesto, in Pian di Carpine: 430). This was the beginning of the Kitan diaspora, which is the subject of this investigation. As could be expected, the remnants of the Naimans, principal targets of Mongol hostility, were also dispersed and there is evidence that a strong link continued to exist between the two groups. As shown by Kuzeev (1974: 227 et passim), the tamgas (property marks) of the two groups are identical. The name of the Naimans has been preserved in a number of toponyms as far west as the Crimea, in a variety of combinations which include a place called Ktay-Naiman (Kuzeev 1974: 228). Following their triple avatar, the Kitans or, at least, their name, had a varied, long, in fact still continuing, afterlife. The name Cathay, as applied to China, is so well known and has been studied so thoroughly that I will not elaborate its history. Also well known, but more obscure, is the still unresolved question of the Kitan origin of the Prester John legend, a topic I will also bypass in this short presentation.1 In what follows I will examine, first, the names of the Kitans and the Karakitays as they appear in European

William of Rubruck: a review article

The appearance of a new translation of the Itinerarium of William of Rubruck (1253–55) furnishes an opportunity to review the work done on this, possibly the most valuable of Western sources on the Mongols. By comparison with the mission of his fellow-Franciscan John of Plano Carpini some eight years before, that of Rubruck to the court of the Great Khan Möngke has been singularly unfortunate. An account of the earlier mission (the so-called “Tartar Relation”) was being drawn up in Poland even before Carpini had rejoined Innocent IV at Lyons, and at least two other variant recensions are known to exist, over and above the numerous manuscripts of the standard version. Rubruck's report, on the other hand, couched in the form of a long letter to St. Louis, languished for three and a half centuries before it was rescued around 1600 by Hakluyt; and there are only five manuscripts.

The Encyclopedist Vincent of Beauvais and His Mongol Extracts from John of Plano Carpini and Simon of Saint-Quentin

IN the mid-thirteenth century, the Dominican scholastic Vincent of Beauvais compiled a staggering compendium or summa known as the Speculum Maius.' This large encyclopedia mirrors the culture of thirteenth century society as it records a general overview of the knowledge available to medieval man. The influence and popularity of the Speculum Maius can be determined from the numerous extant manuscripts, excerpts, epitomes, reworkings, borrowings, and from the fact that the whole or parts of it were translated into French, Catalan, Spanish, Dutch, and German. Its popularity continued into the Renaissance as the entire encyclopedia was printed at least three times in the fifteenth century, once in the sixteenth, and once in the seventeenth.2 Unfortunately, the Speculum Maius has not been published since the latter date. The need for a new critical edition of Vincent's encyclopedia has been recognized for sometime; to date no one has responded to the late B. L. Ullnan's plea forty-one years ago for a new edition.3 Professor Ullman, considered one of the most eminent American palaeographers of the last generation, had himself spent much time and research on the Speculum Maius. After a series of articles on medieval anthologies which pointed out the importance of Vincent's Speculum Maius in studying the culture of the late Middle Ages, Ullman was invited by an international organization to prepare an edition of Vincent's huge work even though it was doubtful that money to finance its execution could be secured.4 Apparently the funds were not forthcoming until Ullman was advanced in years. After delineating the scope and complexity of preparing a critical edition of Vincent's Speculum Maius, Ulhman bequeathed his interest in the -project to the

Simon of Saint-Quentin and the Dominican Mission to the Mongol Baiju: A Reappraisal

Previous articleNext article No AccessSimon of Saint-Quentin and the Dominican Mission to the Mongol Baiju: A ReappraisalGregory G. GuzmanGregory G. Guzman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 46, Number 2Apr., 1971 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2854853 Views: 18Total views on this site Citations: 10Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1971 The Mediaeval Academy of AmericaPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Joseph Benjamin Askew Travelling Across Late Mediaeval Eurasia: Travel, Curiosity and Knowledge in the Mongol Period, (Jun 2022): 59–82.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0124-9_3Dimiter Angelov The Byzantine Hellene, 43 (Jul 2019).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108690874Natia Natsvlishvili A struggle for identity: Georgian Catholics and their monastery in Istanbul, Caucasus Survey 3, no.11 (Mar 2015): 76–86.https://doi.org/10.1080/23761199.2015.1023599Colleen Ho Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century European-Mongol Relations, History Compass 10, no.1212 (Dec 2012): 946–968.https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12018R. Hautala The Linguistic Aspects of the Diplomatic Relations Between Western Europe and Mongol Empire in the 13th century, The Oriental Studies 2012, no.57-5857-58 (Jun 2012): 158–184.https://doi.org/10.15407/skhodoznavstvo2012.57-58.158Ronald M. Davidson Studies in Dhāraṇī Literature I: Revisiting the Meaning of the Term Dhāraṇī, Journal of Indian Philosophy 37, no.22 (Nov 2008): 97–147.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-008-9054-8Peter Jackson The Mongols and Europe, (Oct 1999): 701–719.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521362894.034 Primary sources and secondary works arranged by chapter, (Oct 1999): 835–982.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521362894.042 Marvin L. Colker America Rediscovered in the Thirteenth Century?, Speculum 54, no.44 (Oct 2015): 712–726.https://doi.org/10.2307/2850325 Gregory G. Guzman The Encyclopedist Vincent of Beauvais and His Mongol Extracts from John of Plano Carpini and Simon of Saint-Quentin, Speculum 49, no.22 (Oct 2015): 287–307.https://doi.org/10.2307/2856045

The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation

The Vinland Map, dated to about A.D. 1440-at least fifty years before Columbus landed in the Americas-is a unique map of the world that shows an outline of the northeast American coast and a legend describing its discovery in about 1000 by Leif Eiriksson, the Norseman from Greenland. The map was published by Yale University Press in 1965 and generated an enormous amount of debate. Chemical analysis of the ink later suggested the map might be a forgery, but recent appraisals of both scientific and humanist evidence argue that it is indeed authentic. Now, on the thirtieth anniversary of its original publication, here is this classic of historical cartography in a new edition. It reprints unaltered the original text on the Vinland Map and an account of Friar John of Plano Carpini's mission to the Mongols from 1245 to 1247, with which the map had at some stage been bound. To this have been added a new introduction by George D. Painter, sole survivor of the original team of editors, who discusses the verification of the map's authenticity; a new essay by Wilcomb E. Washburn, director of the Smithsonian's American Studies Program, on the map's provenance and the tests that have been performed on it; and a new discussion of the map's compositional and structural aspects by Thomas A. Cahill and Bruce H. Kusko, of the Crocker Historical and Archaeological Projects at the University of California, Davis. There is also an account by Laurence C. Witten II, the rare-book dealer who sold the map to the benefactor who donated it anonymously to the Yale University Library.

John of Plano Carpini's Return from the Mongols

In 1943, at the Bibliothèque Nationale, whilst browsing in the Historiae Hungaricae Fontes Domestici edited by M. Florianus, I came across a short notice, No. 2 of Adnotationes Historicae seculi XII et XIII, entitled: “Quos Bela rex Hungarorum, velut dominus papa, nuntios ad Thartaros direxit.” An explanatory note states: “Notitia … de electione novi imperatoris Tartarorum, et nuptiis Stephani Belae IV-i filii cum filia regis Cumanorum celebratis descripta ex codice Parisiensi Luxemb. Fol. 22. sec. XIH-i, edita fuit in opere collectitio cui nomen “Thesaurus historicus” Budapestini anno 1878.” It took me some time to establish that the “Thesaurus historicus” mentioned here was in fact the Hungarian periodical Történelmi Tár. Fortunately I had no difficulty in finding the volume referred to by Florianus, and in it I saw reproduced the same Latin text accompanied by a note to the effect that the MS referred to contained also a version of Piano Oarpini's Historia Mongalorum. There was also a reference to the “Zeitschrift für deutsche Literature, XVII”. I had been chasing this reference intermittently for years when, in 1951, Mile. Marie-Thérèse d'Alverny, conservateur adjoint at the Bibliothèque Nationale, told me that Marczali's reference was wrong, and was to be corrected to “Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum”! There I found an article by W. Studemund, in which the note mentioned by Florianus and Marczali had been published, probably for the first time.

The Mission of Giovanni de Plano Carpini and Benedict the Pole of Vratislavia to Halicz

The journey to Mongolia of Giovanni de Plano Carpini and Benedict the Pole of Vratislavia (Wroclaw, Breslau) in 1245–1247 has been explored by historians. But the significance of their careers in Poland and Ruthenia has not yet been studied and remains a subject for future research. The Minorites, in addition to their chief mission—the peace negotiations with the Grand Khan in Karakorum—had been ordered to start conversations in Cracow (Kraków) and Halicz to bring about the union of Orthodox Ruthenia with Rome. Since he was vicedelegate and companion to friar Giovanni, Benedict's contribution to the achievement of the union seems to have been overlooked or insufficiently appreciated.