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CARPINI, JOANNES DE PLANO

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 399 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CARPINI, JOANNES DE PLANO , the first noteworthy See also:European explorer of the Mongol See also:empire (in the 13th See also:century), and the author of the earliest important Western See also:work on See also:northern and central See also:Asia, See also:Russian See also:Europe, and other regions of the- Tatar dominion. He appears to have been a native of See also:Umbria, where a See also:place formerly called Pian-del Carpine, but now Piano dells Magione, stands near See also:Perugia, on the road to See also:Cortona. He was one of the companions and disciples of his countryman St See also:Francis of- See also:Assisi, and from sundry indications: can hardly have been younger than the latter, See also:born in 1182. Joannes See also:bore a high repute in the See also:order, and took a foremost See also:part in the See also:propagation of its teaching in northern Europe, holding successively the offices of See also:warden (custos) in See also:Saxony, and of provincial (See also:minister) of See also:Germany, and afterwards of See also:Spain, perhaps of See also:Barbary, and of See also:Cologne. He was in the last See also:post at the See also:time of the See also:great Mongol invasion of eastern Europe and of the disastrous See also:battle of See also:Liegnitz (See also:April 9, 1241), which threatened to See also:cast European Christendom beneath the feet of barbarous hordes. The dread of the See also:Tatars was, however, still on men's mind four years later, when See also:Pope See also:Innocent IV. despatched the first formal See also:Catholic See also:mission to the See also:Mongols (1245), partly to protest against the latter's invasion of See also:Christian lands, partly to gain trustworthy See also:information regarding the hordes and their purposes; behind there may have lurked the beginnings of a policy much See also:developed in after-time—that of opening See also:diplomatic intercourse with a See also:power whose See also:alliance might be invaluable against See also:Islam. At the See also:head of this mission the pope placed See also:Friar Joannes, at this time certainly not far from sixty-five years of See also:age; and to his discretion nearly everything in the accomplishment of the mission seems to have been See also:left. The See also:legate started from See also:Lyons, where the pope then resided, on :See also:Easter See also:day (April 16, 1245), accompanied by another friar, one See also:Stephen of Bohemia, who See also:broke down at Kanev near See also:Kiev, and was left behind. After seeking counsel of an old friend, See also:Wenceslaus, See also:king of Bohemia, Carpini was joined at See also:Breslau by another Minorite, See also:Benedict the See also:Pole, appointed to See also:act as interpreter. The on-See also:ward See also:journey See also:lay by Kiev; the Tatar posts were entered at Kanev; and thence the route ran across the See also:Dnieper (Neper, Nepere, in Carpini and Benedict) to the See also:Don and See also:Volga (Ethil in Benedict; Carpini is the first Western to give us the See also:modern name). Upon the last-named stood the Ordu or See also:camp of See also:Batu, the famous conqueror of eastern Europe, and the supreme Mongol See also:commander on the western frontiers of the empire, as well as one of the most See also:senior princes of the See also:house of Jenghiz. Here the envoys, with their presents, had to pass between two fires, before being presented to the See also:prince (beginning of April 1246).

Batu ordered them to proceed onward to the See also:

court of the supreme See also:khan in See also:Mongolia; and on Easter day once more (April 8,'1246) they started on the second and most formidable part of their journey— " so See also:ill," writes the legate, " that we could scarcely sit a See also:horse; and throughout all that See also:Lent our See also:food had been nought but See also:millet with See also:salt and See also:water, and with only See also:snow melted in a See also:kettle for drink." Their bodies were tightly bandaged to enable them to endure the excessive fatigue of this enormous ride, which led them across the Jaec or Ural See also:river, and See also:north of the See also:Caspian and the See also:Aral to the Jaxartes or Syr Darla (quidam fluvius See also:magnus cujus nomen See also:ignoramus), and the See also:Mahommedan cities which then stood on its See also:banks; then along the shores of the Dzungarian lakes; and so forward, till, on the feast of St See also:Mary Magdalene (See also:July 22), they reached at last the imperial camp called Sira Orda (i.e. Yellow See also:Pavilion), near See also:Karakorum and the Orkhon river—this stout-hearted old See also:man having thus ridden something like 3000 M. in 106 days. Since the See also:death of Okkodai the imperial authority had been in See also:interregnum. Kuyuk, Okkodai's eldest son, had now been designated to the See also:throne; his formal See also:election in a great Kurultai, or See also:diet of the tribes, took place while the friars were at Sira Orda, along with 3000 to 4000 envoys and deputies from all parts of Asia and eastern Europe, bearing See also:homage, See also:tribute and presents. They afterwards, on the 24th of See also:August, witnessed the formal enthronement at another camp in the vicinity called the See also:Golden Ordu, after which they were presented to the See also:emperor. It was not till See also:November that they got their dismissal, bearing a See also:letter to the pope in Mongol, Arabic and Latin, which was little else than a brief imperious assertion of the khan's See also:office as the See also:scourge of See also:God. Then commenced their See also:long See also:winter journey homeward; often they had to See also:lie on the See also:bare snow, or on the ground scraped bare of snow with the traveller's See also:foot. They reached Kiev on the 9th of See also:June 1247. There, and on their further journey, the See also:Slavonic Christians welcomed them as risen from the dead, with festive hospitality. See also:Crossing the See also:Rhine at Cologne, they found the pope still at Lyons, and there delivered their See also:report and the khan's letter. Not long afterwards Friar Joannes was rewarded with the archbishopric of See also:Antivari in See also:Dalmatia, and was sent as legate to St See also:Louis. The date of his death may be fixed, with the help of the Franciscan See also:Martyrology and other authorities, as the 1st of August 1252; hence it is clear that See also:John did not long survive the hardships of his journey.

He recorded the information that he had collected in a work, variously entitled in the See also:

MSS. Historia Mongalorum quos nos Tartaros appellamus, and See also:Liber Tartarorum, or Tatarorum. This See also:treatise is divided into eight ample chapters on the See also:country, See also:climate, See also:manners, See also:religion, See also:character, See also:history, policy and See also:tactics of the Tatars, and on the best way of opposing them, followed by single (ninth) See also:chapter on the regions passed through. The See also:book thus answers to its See also:title. Like some other famous See also:medieval itineraries it shows an entire See also:absence of a traveller's or author's egotism, and contains, even in the last chapter, scarcely any See also:personal narrative. Carpini was not only an old man when he went cheerfully upon this mission, but was, as we know from accidental See also:evidence in the See also:annals of his order, a See also:fat and heavy man (vir gravis et corpulentus), insomuch that during his preachings in Germany he was See also:fain, contrary to Franciscan precedent, to ride a donkey. Yet not a word approaching more nearly to complaint than those which we have quoted above appears in his narrative. His book, both as to personal and See also:geographical detail, is inferior to that written a few years later by a younger See also:brother of the same Order, Louis IX.'s most noteworthy See also:envoy to the Mongols, See also:William of Rubrouck or See also:Rubruquis. But in spite of these defects, due partly to his conception of his task, and in spite of the credulity with which he incorporates the See also:Oriental tales, sometimes of childish absurdity, from which Rubruquis is so See also:free, Friar Joannes' Historia is in many ways the See also:chief See also:literary memorial of European overland expansion before Marco See also:Polo. It first revealed the Mongol See also:world to Catholic Christendom; its See also:account of Tatar manners, customs and history is perhaps the best treatment of the subject by any Christian writer of the See also:middle ages. We may especially See also:notice, moreover, its four name-lists:—of the nations conquered by the Mongols; of the nations which had up to this time (1245–1247) successfully resisted; of the Mongol princes; and of the witnesses to the truth of his narrative, including various merchants trading in Kiev whom he had met. All these catalogues, unrivalled in Western medieval literature, are of the utmost See also:historical value.

To the accuracy of Carpini's statements upon Mongol See also:

life, a modern educated Mongol, Galsang Gomboyev, has See also:borne detailed and interesting testimony (see Melanges asiat. tires du See also:Bullet. Hist. Philol. de l' Acad. See also:Imp. de St Petersbourg, ii. p. 65o, 1856). The book must have been prepared immediately after the return of the traveller, for the Friar Salimbeni, who met him in See also:France in the See also:year of his return (1247), gives us these interesting particulars:—" He was a See also:clever and conversable man, well lettered, a great discourser, and full of a diversity of experience. ... He wrote a big book about the Tattars (sic), and about other marvels that he had seen, and whenever he See also:felt weary of telling about the Tattars, he would cause that book of his to be read, as I have often heard and seen" (" Chron. Fr. Salimbeni Parmensis" in Monum. Histor. ad Prov. et Placent. pertinentia, See also:Parma, 1857). For a long time the work was but partially known, and that chiefly through an abridgment in the vast compilation of Vin-cent of See also:Beauvais (See also:Speculum Historiale) made in the See also:generation following the traveller's own, and printed first in 1473.

See also:

Hakluyt (1598) and Bergeron (1634) published portions of the See also:original work; but the See also:complete and genuine See also:text was not printed till 1838, when it was put forth by the See also:late M. D'Avezac, an editorial masterpiece, embodied (1839) in the 4th See also:volume of the Recueil de voyages et de memoires of the Geographical Society of See also:Paris. Joannes' See also:companion, See also:Benedictus Polonus, also left a brief narrative taken down from his oral relation. This was first published by M. D'Avezac in the work just named. The following four MSS. may be noticed: (1) " Corpus," i.e. Corpus Christi See also:College, See also:Cambridge, No. 181; (2) " See also:Petau," i.e. See also:Leiden University, 77 (formerly 104)—both these are certainly earlier than 1300; (3) " See also:Colbert," i.e. Paris, See also:National Library, Fonds See also:Lat. 2477, of about 1350; (4) " See also:London-Lumley," i.e. London, See also:British Museum, MSS.

Reg. 13 A xiv., of late 13th century. Three other MSS. certainly exist; yet six more are perhaps to be found, but none of these possesses the value of those given above. Besides the See also:

editions referred to in the See also:body of the See also:article, we may also mention (I) P. See also:Girolamo Golubovich, Biblioteca bio-bibliografica della Terra See also:Santa e dell' See also:Oriente Francescano (1906), vol. i. (1215-1300), pp. 190-213; (2) William of Rubruck . with . John of Pion de Carpine, edited by W. W. Rockhill, Hakluyt Society (1900), especially pp. 1-39; (3) C. See also:Raymond Beazley, See also:Dawn of Modern See also:Geography, ii.

(1901), 279-317, 375-380; iii. 85, 544, 553; and Carpini and Rubruquis, Hakluyt Society (1903), especially pp. vii.-xviii. 43-144, 249-295. (H. Y.; C. R.

End of Article: CARPINI, JOANNES DE PLANO

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