Giovanni de' Marignolli[1][a] (Latin:Johannes Marignola;[5][6][b]fl. 1338–1353), variouslyanglicized asJohn of Marignolli[10][11] orJohn of Florence,[12][c] was a notable 14th-centuryCatholicEuropean traveller to medieval China and India.
Giovanni was born, probably before 1290, to the nobleFlorentine family of the Marignolli. The family is long extinct, but theVia de' Cerretani, a street nearthe cathedral, formerly bore their name.[1] Giovanni received hishabit at theFranciscan basilica ofSanta Croce at a young age. His work claims he later held the chair of theology at theUniversity of Bologna.[16]
In 1338 there arrived atAvignon, wherePope Benedict XII held his court, an embassy from the greatkhan ofCathay (theMongol emperor of the ChineseYuan dynasty), bearing letters to the pontiff from the khan himself, and from certain ChristianAlan nobles in his service. These latter represented that they had been eight years (sinceMonte Corvino's death) without a spiritual guide, and earnestly desired one. The pope replied to the letters and appointed four ecclesiastics as his legates to the khan's court. The name "John of Florence" appears third on the letters of commission. A large party was associated with the four chief envoys: when inKhanbaliq (within modernBeijing), the embassy still numbered thirty-two out of an original fifty. The mission left Avignon in December 1338;[1] picked up the "Tatar" envoys atNaples on 10 February 1339;[16] and arrived atPera nearConstantinople on May 1.[1] While there, theByzantineemperorAndronicus III pled in vain for reconciliation and alliance with thewestern church.[16] Leaving June 24, they sailed across theBlack Sea toCaffa on theCrimea, whence they travelled to the court ofÖzbeg, khan of theGolden Horde, atSarai on theVolga. The khan entertained them hospitably during the winter of 1339-40[1] and then sent them with an escort[16] across the steppes to Armalec, orAlmaliq (within modernHuocheng County), the northern seat of the house ofChaghatai. "There," says Marignolli, "we built a church, bought a piece of ground... sung masses, and baptized several persons, notwithstanding that only the year before the bishop (referring to Bishop of Armalec) and six other minor friars had there undergone gloriousmartyrdom forChrist's salvation."[1]
Quitting Almaliq in the winter of 1341, they crossed theGobi Desert[16] by way of Kumul (within modernHami), reaching Khanbaliq in May or June 1342. They were well received byToghon Temür, thelast emperor of theYuan dynasty in China. An entry in the Chinese annals fixes the year of Marignolli's presentation by its mention of the arrival of the great horses from the kingdom of theFolang (i.e.,Farang orFranks), one of which was 11 feet 6 inches in length, and 6 feet 8 inches high and black all over.[1] Marignolli stayed at Khanbaliq for three[16] or four years, after which he travelled through southern and eastern China toQuanzhou[17][18] (modernXiamen), quitting China apparently in December 1347.[1] He had been impressed by theChristian community in China, its imperial support, andChinese culture.[19]
He reached Columbum (Kaulam,Kollam orQuilon inMalabar) inEaster week of 1348. At this place he found a church of the Latin communion, probably founded byJordanus of Severac, who had been appointedBishop of Columbum (Diocese of Quilon) byPope John XXII in 1330. Here Marignolli remained sixteen months, after which he proceeded on what seems very much a wandering voyage. First he visited the shrine of St Thomas near the modernMadras, and then proceeded to what he calls the kingdom of Saba, and identifies with theSheba ofScripture, but which seems from various particulars to have beenJava. Taking ship again for Malabar on his way to Europe, he encountered great storms. They found shelter in the little port of Pervily or Pervilis (Beruwala or Berberyn) in the south-west ofCeylon; but here the legate fell into the hands of "a certain tyrant Coya Jaan (Khoja Jahan), aeunuch and an accursedSaracen," who professed to treat him with all deference but detained him four months and plundered all the gifts and Eastern rarities that he was carrying home. This detention in Ceylon enabled Marignolli to give a variety of curious particulars regardingBuddhist monasticism, the aboriginal races of Ceylon, and other marvels.[1][20]The locals claimed that "Seyllan" (Adam's Peak)[10] was 40miles[20] fromParadise, but he was unable to explore the area.[3] After this we have only fragmentary notices, showing that his route to Europe lay byOrmuz, the ruins ofBabel,Bagdad,Mosul,Aleppo and thence toDamascus andJerusalem.[1] In 1353, he arrived at Naples, whence he visited Florence before returning to Avignon[16] by the end of the year. There, he delivered a letter from the great khan toPope Innocent VI.[1]
In the following year theEmperor Charles IV, on a visit to Italy, made Marignolli one of his chaplains.[1] Soon after, in March 1354, the pope made himbishop of Bisignano[16] but he seems to have been in no hurry to reside there. He appears to have accompanied the emperor toPrague in 1354–1355; in 1356 he is found acting as envoy to the Pope fromFlorence; and in 1357 he is atBologna.[1] That year, the emperor called him to be a councillor and his court historian.[16] At his behest,[1] Marignolli then compiled hisAnnals of Bohemia.[16]
We do not know when he died. The last trace of Marignolli is a letter addressed to him, which was found in the 18th century among the records in the chapter library atPrague. The writer is an unnamedArchbishop of Armagh, easily identified withRichard Fitz Ralph, a strenuous foe of theFranciscans, who had broken lances in controversy withOckham andBurley. The letter implies that some intention had been intimated from Avignon of sending Marignolli toIreland in connexion with matters then in debate—a project which stirs Fitz Ralph's wrath.[1]
Marignolli's primary work was hisAnnals orChronicles of Bohemia (Cronica Boemorum).[5][d] The fragmentary notes of Marignolli's eastern travels often contain vivid remembrance and graphic description, but combined with excessive vanity and an incoherent lapse from one thing to another.Henry Yule described Marignolli's digressions as "like unexpected fossils in a mud-bank"[18] but they have no claim to be called a narrative, and it is with no small pains that anything like a narrative can be pieced out of them. Indeed, the mode in which they were elicited illustrates how little medieval travellers thought of publication:[1] Theemperor Charles, instead of urging his chaplain to write a history of his vast journeys, set him to the repugnant task of recasting the annals ofBohemia and the clerk consoled himself by salting the insipid stuff with interpolations,à propos de bottes, of his recollections of Asiatic travel.[21] Despite the sections of wonders in the work, he takes pains to deny the belief in the existence of nations of monsters or malformed humans, saying the truth is "no such people do exist as nations, though there may be an individual monster here and there".[22]
Nobody seems to have noticed the work until 1768,[21] when the chronicle was published inDobner.[23] Thus in type, Marignolli again seems to have remained unread until 1820,[21] when a paper on his travels was published byMeinert.[24]Kunstmann devoted one of his papers on the ecclesiastical travellers of theMiddle Ages to the account.[25]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Yule, Henry;Beazley, Charles Raymond (1911). "Marignolli, Giovanni de'". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 717–718..| International | |
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