Giovanni da Pian del Carpine

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Great Khan of the Mongol Empire
Carpine's great journey to the East; his route is indicated, railroad track style, in dark blue

Giovanni da Pian del Carpine

Great Khan of the Mongol Empire.[3] He was the author of the earliest important Western account of northern and Central Asia, Rus', and other regions of the Mongol dominion.[4] He served as the Primate of Serbia, based in Antivari, from 1247 to 1252.[5]

Life before the journey

Giovanni appears to have been a native of Umbria, in central Italy. His surname was derived from Pian del Carpine (literally "Hornbeam Plain"), an area known later as Magione, between Perugia and Cortona. He was one of the companions and disciples of his near-contemporary and countryman Saint Francis of Assisi.[4]

Highly esteemed within the

Barbary and Cologne, and been provincial of Spain.[5]

Background to his travels

Giovanni was a provincial of Germany at the time of the great

Mongol invasion of eastern Europe and the Battle of Legnica (modern Legnickie Pole) on 9 April 1241.[5] The defeat of European forces at Legnica almost led to Ögedei, Khan of the Mongol Empire, controlling most of Eastern Europe.[5]

In Europe, dread of the "Tatars" (Mongols) was still widespread four years later, when Pope Innocent IV decided to dispatch the first formal Catholic mission to the Mongols. The missionaries were sent partly in protest at the Mongol invasion of Christendom and partly to gain information regarding the Khan's intentions and military strength.[5]

Travels

Pope Innocent IV chose Giovanni to head the mission and apparently was in charge of nearly everything in the mission. As a

Benedykt Polak, who was appointed to act as interpreter.[5]

The route passed by Kyiv, entered the Tatar posts at Kaniv and then ran across the

Don and Volga. Giovanni is the first Westerner to give the modern names for those rivers. On the Volga stood the Ordu, or camp, of Batu, the famous conqueror of eastern Europe and supreme Mongol commander on the western frontiers of the empire. He was one of the most senior princes of the house of Genghis Khan. There, the envoys, with their presents, had to pass between two fires to remove possible injurious thoughts and poisons,[7] before being presented to the prince (early April 1246).[5]

Drawing of Giovanni da Pian del Carpine meeting with The Great Khan of the Mongol Empire

Batu ordered them to proceed to the court of the supreme Khan in

Karakorum and the Orkhon River. Giovanni and his companions rode an estimated 3000 miles in 106 days.[5]

Since the death of Ögedei Khan, the imperial authority was in interregnum and Güyük, Ögedei's eldest son, was designated to the throne. His formal election in a great Kurultai, or diet of the tribes, took place while the friars were at Sira Orda, which entailed the gathering of 3000 to 4000 envoys and deputies from all parts of Asia and eastern Europe, bearing homage, tribute and presents. On 24 August they witnessed the formal enthronement at another camp in the vicinity called the Golden Ordu, and they were then presented to the new emperor.[5]

The great Khan, Güyük, refused the invitation to become

Christian and demanded rather that the Pope and rulers of Europe should come to him and swear allegiance to him, a demand recorded in a letter from Güyük Khan to Pope Innocent IV. The Khan did not dismiss the expedition until November. He gave them a letter to the Pope written in Mongol, Arabic, and Latin that was a brief imperious assertion of the Khan's office as the scourge of God. They began a long winter journey home. Often, they had to lie on the bare snow or on ground scraped bare of snow with a foot. They reached Kiev on 10 June 1247. There and on their further journey the Slavonic Christians welcomed them as risen from the dead with festive hospitality. Crossing the Rhine at Cologne, they found the Pope still at Lyon and delivered their report and the Khan's letter.[5]

Not long afterward, Giovanni was rewarded with the archbishopric of

Primate of Serbia in Antivari in Dalmatia, and was sent as legate to Louis IX of France. He lived only five years following the hardships of his journey. He died, according to the Franciscan Martyrology and other authorities, on 1 August 1252.[5]

Books

Main article: Ystoria Mongalorum

The Ystoria Mongalorum is the report compiled by Carpine, of his trip to the Mongol Empire. Written in the 1240s, it is the oldest European account of the Mongols. Carpine was the first European to try to chronicle Mongol history. Two versions of the Ystoria Mongalorum are known to exist: Carpine's own and another, usually referred to as the Tartar Relation.

Erik Hildinger translated Giovanni's book into English.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Ostrowski 1993, p. 98.
  2. ^ Schels, P.C.A. "Johannes de Plano Carpini". Mittelalter-Lexikon (in German). Retrieved 4 April 2021. um 1185
  3. S2CID 146580919
    .
  4. ^ a b Yule & Beazley 1911, p. 397.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Yule & Beazley 1911, p. 398.
  6. ^ Montalbano, p.593.
  7. ^ Fiovanni's Ystoria Mongalorum, section X.
  8. ISBN 978-0828320177
    .

Further reading

External links

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