Carpini

Carpini, or JOHANNES DE PIAN DEL CARPINE, a Franciscan monk, born in Umbria about 1182; was head of the mission sent by Pope Innocent IV. to the court of the emperor of the Mongols, whose warlike advances had thrown Christendom into consternation. A big, fat man, more than sixty years old, he started from Lyons in April 1245, and, crossing the Dnieper, Don, Volga, Ural, and Jaxartes, in the summer of 1246 reached Karakorum, beyond Lake Baikal, thence returning to Kieff in June 1247, and so back to Lyons. The hardships of the journey were great, and one ride of 3000 miles in 106 days surpasses the best records of most modern travellers. Prior to this, the most monstrous fables had prevailed regarding the Tartars; and Carpini's Latin narrative was the first to bring these myths into discredit. Hakluyt copied much of the work into his Navigations and Discoveries (1598); but the first complete edition of the text was D'Avezac's (1839). Carpini died Archbishop of Antivari some time before 1253.