(10.)
Giovanni di Monte Corvino. 1288.
Giovanni di Monte Corvino, a Franciscan monk of Calabria, was despatched as ambassador by Pope Nicholas IV, in 1288, to Arghun, to the Mongolian Khan of Persia, He spent some time at Tauris, and left that city in 1291 for India, where he made several conversions. He then proceeded further east to Khan-Balyk, or Cambalu, the capital of the Tatars, the modern Peking, where he died, holding the honourable position of archbishop of the missions in that city. Regarding his travels in Tartary, we have only two of his letters, dated respectively 1305 and 1306, which are found printed in the following works—
Wadding, Annales Minorum. Romæ, 1732, fol., vol. vi, p. 69 sq.
Mosheimii Historia Tartarorum Ecclesiastica. App. xliv et xlv, p. 114-120.
Marsden, the Travels of Marco Polo, a Venetian, in the thirteenth century. London, 1818, 4to., p. 243-245.
See also, respecting this monk, “Nouveaux mélanges Asiatiques,” par M. Abel Remusat; vol. ii, p. 193-198.
(11.)
Haitho. 1290.
Haitho, Hatto, or Hayton, was a prince of the royal family of Armenia. Having long followed the profession of arms under his uncle Haitho II, king
