a general of the Mongolians, whence crossing the Don and Wolga, they came to the encampment of Batu Khan, who sent them to Kajuk Khan, called also Cuyne, the emperor of the Mongolians.
Carpini was absent sixteen months, and after having done his best to carry out the instructions he had received, he returned to Europe.
“He had the merit of being the first to publish in Europe a rational description of the Mongol nation; though ignorant, bigoted, and credulous, he was not altogether destitute of talent and observation; and his prudent deportment procured him opportunities which the monastic austerity of Ascelin and his companions could never have expected.”[1]
Of this journey we have a detailed and also an abbreviated account, both in Latin, and of these there are several, in part contemporaneous, copies. The Imperial Library of Vienna possesses of the larger narrative three copies, two of which are on parchment, of the thirteenth century. The one in quarto, and marked, Hist. prof., No. DCLI, bears the title—
Relacio fratris Joannis de Plano Carpini, ordinis fratrum minorum, de Tartaris; and begins with the words: Anno Domini Mo.CCo. XL. Vo. Frater Johannes de ordine minorum fratrum dictus de Plano Carpini a domino papa missus ad Tartaros cum alio fratre ejusdem ordinis.
The folio MS. is marked Hist. prof., No. XCIV, and has the title—
- ↑ Cooley’s “History of Maritime and Inland Discovery,” i, 254.
