Giovanni de' Marignolli facts for kids
Giovanni de' Marignolli (also known as John of Marignolli or John of Florence) was an important traveler from Europe in the 1300s. He was a Catholic priest who journeyed all the way to medieval China and India.
Contents
Life and Travels
Early Years
Giovanni was likely born before 1290 in Florence, Italy. His family, the Marignolli, was a noble family. He joined the Franciscans (a religious group) when he was young. He later taught theology at the University of Bologna.
Starting the Journey
In 1338, Giovanni arrived in Avignon, France. This is where the Pope lived at the time. An important messenger from the great Khan of China (the Mongol emperor of the Yuan dynasty) had arrived there. The messenger brought letters from the Khan and from some Christian nobles in his service. These nobles asked the Pope to send a new spiritual leader because their old one had passed away.
The Pope replied to the letters and chose four church leaders to go to the Khan's court. Giovanni was one of them. Their group was quite large, starting with 50 people and still having 32 when they reached China.
They left Avignon in December 1338. They picked up the Mongol messengers in Naples, Italy, in February 1339. By May 1, they reached Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey). The Byzantine emperor there tried to get them to help unite his church with the Western church, but it didn't work.
Leaving Constantinople in June, they sailed across the Black Sea to Caffa (in Crimea). From there, they traveled to the court of Özbeg, the Khan of the Golden Horde, in Sarai (on the Volga River). The Khan welcomed them warmly during the winter of 1339–1340. He then sent them with an escort across the plains to Almaliq (in modern China). Giovanni wrote that they built a church there, bought land, held masses, and baptized people. This was brave, as just the year before, a bishop and six other friars had been killed there for their faith.
Time in China
In the winter of 1341, they left Almaliq. They crossed the Gobi Desert and arrived in Khanbaliq (modern Beijing) in May or June 1342. The last emperor of the Yuan dynasty, Toghon Temür, welcomed them. Chinese records mention their arrival, noting the "great horses" they brought. One horse was very large, about 11 feet 6 inches long and 6 feet 8 inches tall, and completely black.
Giovanni stayed in Khanbaliq for three or four years. He was very impressed by the Christian community in China and how the emperor supported it. He also admired Chinese culture. After his stay, he traveled through southern and eastern China to Quanzhou. He left China around December 1347.
The Journey Home
Giovanni reached Kollam (in India) in Easter week of 1348. He found a Latin church there, likely started by another bishop years before. Giovanni stayed in Kollam for 16 months.
After that, he continued his journey, which seemed to involve a lot of wandering. He visited the shrine of St. Thomas near Chennai, India. Then he went to a place he called the kingdom of Saba, which he thought was the Sheba from the Bible. However, it seems he was actually in Java, an island in Indonesia.
He took a ship again to go back to Malabar (in India) on his way to Europe. But they ran into big storms. They found shelter in a small port called Pervily (likely Beruwala in Sri Lanka). Here, Giovanni was captured by a "tyrant" named Coya Jaan. This ruler pretended to be kind but held Giovanni for four months. He also stole all the gifts and rare items Giovanni was bringing home from the East.
Being held in Sri Lanka allowed Giovanni to write down many interesting details. He described Buddhism, the native people of Sri Lanka, and other amazing things. The locals told him that "Seyllan" (Adam's Peak) was 40 miles from Paradise, but he couldn't explore that area.
After this, we only have small notes about his journey. His route back to Europe included Ormuz, the ruins of Babylon, Baghdad, Mosul, Aleppo, Damascus, and Jerusalem.
In 1353, he arrived in Naples, Italy. He visited Florence before returning to Avignon by the end of the year. There, he gave a letter from the great Khan to the new Pope, Pope Innocent VI.
Later Life and Work
The next year, Emperor Charles IV visited Italy and made Giovanni one of his special chaplains. Soon after, in March 1354, the Pope made him a bishop. However, Giovanni didn't seem to rush to live in his new bishopric.
He likely went with the emperor to Prague in 1354–1355. In 1356, he was working as a messenger for Florence to the Pope. In 1357, he was in Bologna. That year, the emperor asked him to be a special advisor and his court historian. Because of this, Giovanni wrote his Annals of Bohemia.
We don't know exactly when Giovanni died. The last record of him is a letter found in Prague. It was from an Archbishop of Armagh, who was against the Franciscans. The letter suggests that Giovanni might have been sent to Ireland for some discussions, which made the Archbishop angry.
Giovanni's Writings
Giovanni's main work was his Annals or Chronicles of Bohemia. These were meant to be a history of Bohemia. However, Giovanni often added his own travel notes into the book. These notes are full of vivid memories and descriptions, but they can jump from one topic to another.
One historian described Giovanni's side stories as "like unexpected fossils in a mud-bank." They aren't a clear story of his travels. It takes a lot of effort to piece together his journey from them. This shows that medieval travelers didn't always plan to publish their adventures. The emperor asked Giovanni to write a history of Bohemia, which he didn't enjoy. So, he added his exciting travel memories into the boring historical text.
Even though his work talks about wonders, Giovanni made sure to say that he didn't believe in nations of monsters or strange-looking humans. He said that such people don't exist as whole nations, though there might be a rare individual monster.
His work wasn't widely known until 1768 when it was published. Even then, it wasn't much read until 1820.
Images for kids
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Giovanni Marignolli image
See also
In Spanish: Giovanni de Marignolli para niños
