Edmond Eh

Abstract

　　Two Dominican friars were instructed by the pope to accompany Marco Polo when he set out for China with his father and uncle. This relationship ended quickly and disappointingly when the two friars Niccolò and William decided not to continue with the journey soon after it began. Given the failed attempt at collaboration, it may seem surprising that a group of Italian friars actually took great interest in Marco Polo’s work and developed an extensive and productive relationship with it. This paper presents some early Dominican contributions to the transmission and reception of Le divisament dou monde (Il Milione) in Europe. Regarding transmission, Pipino translated and edited a Latin version of the text that became the most widely disseminated and the most widely used version in Europe. Regarding reception, Pipino and Jacopo referred to Polo’s text to compose their major historical works, while Pietro Calo and Filippo quoted from the Polo’s text when they composed works that served as preaching aids.

Dominicans

　　What is relatively well known is the rather limited role that two Dominican friars played in the travels of Marco Polo. Pope Gregory X assigned Niccolò of Vicenza and William of Tripoli to accompany the Polo family (Niccolò, Maffeo and Marco) on their journey to China in 1271. The pope granted Niccolò and William privileges related to the sacrament of holy orders and the sacrament of reconciliation. He also gave them official letters that were addressed to Kublai Khan. Marco Polo (1254-1324) reports that the five of them travelled from Acre (north-western Israel) to Ayas (south-central Turkey) where they discovered that Egypt had invaded Armenia. Due to the perceived danger in the region, the two Dominican friars left their privileges and letters with Niccolò and Maffeo when they discontinued their journey (Polo 2015, 45-46). But what is less well known are the very important roles that several Italian Dominicans played in The Travels of Marco Polo (Le divisament dou monde). This paper presents how they contributed to the transmission and reception of Marco Polo’s text.

　　Dominic de Guzman (1170-1221) is a priest of the Catholic Church who founded the Order of Friars Preachers (Dominicans) in 1216. During his travels through Spain and southern France, Dominic discovered that many believers had fallen away from the Catholic faith. He saw the urgent need for a group of preachers who could explain the teachings of the Church to its believers. After its approval by Pope Honorius III, the order grew and was divided into provinces. The first communities of Dominicans were established in Europe and the provinces are named as follows: Spain (Madrid);, Toulouse, France (Paris);, St Dominic in Italy (Milan);, Roman Province of St Catherine of Siena (Rome);, St Thomas Aquinas in Italy (Madonna dell’Arco, Naples);, Hungary, Germany (Cologne), England and Poland (Bullough 2024).

　　Marco Polo’s rather close relationship with a group of Dominicans in northern Italy is well established. There is ample evidence that he had links with the Convent of Saints John and Paul at Venice. Polo is named as a witness in an official record that the community accepted a gift on 31 March 1323 (Bolognari 2020, 16). He even included the Convent in his will of 9 January 1324 (Bartoli Langeli 2019).

Transmission

　　It is safe to say that Francesco Pipino (1270-1328), a Dominican friar from Bologna, produced the most famous Latin translation of Marco Polo’s text, which was completed between 1310 and 1317. The oldest title of the book is recorded as Le divisament dou monde (The Description of the World). The title that Pipino gives to the book is perhaps less concise but more accurate: De conditionibus et consuetudinibus orientalium regionibum (On the Conditions and Customs of the Eastern Regions) (Gadrat-Ouerfelli 2022, 287). It is no exaggeration to state that Pipino’s translation of Marco Polo’s text is the version that was most widely disseminated throughout Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The text reached many places, including England, France, Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, as well as Northern, Central and Eastern Europe (Gadrat-Ouerfelli 2015, 63).

　　It is worth noting that its wide dissemination was greatly aided by the development of printing press technology during the fifteenth century. The Dutch printer Gheraert Leeu (1445-1492) reproduced Pipino’s version at Gouda, South Holland between 1483 and 1484 (Gadrat-Ouerfelli 2022, 289). As Pipino’s translation was the first Latin version to be printed, it became the most famous and widely used version in Europe during this time. His version was subsequently re-translated from Latin to other European languages, including Czech, French, Gaelic, Portuguese and even back to Venetian (Gadrat-Ouerfelli 2015, 86-91).

　　It is known that Polo composed his text in collaboration with Rustichello da Pisa (1272-1300), who was an established writer of fiction. Polo and Rustichello communicated using Franco-Italian, which is a hybrid language that was popularly used during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It is also known that Pipino prepared his Latin translation from a Venetian version of Polo’s text (the VA version) (Maraini and Peters 2024).

　　“Francesco Pipino produced a translation that can also be described as a reworking, as was frequently the case in the Middle Ages. He changed the general structure of the work and gave it a new appearance” (Gadrat-Ouerfelli 2022, 288). It is evident that Pipino heavily edited the text because he found many things that seemed to be offensive to good Christian faith and morals. But it is important to note that there is no original manuscript that is considered to be authentic. It is likely that Rustichello took what Polo dictated and transcribed it using his own writing style. It also seems that Polo may have revised several copies of the text after it was completed by Rustichello. In light of the above, Pipino’s version is still generally considered a good Latin translation of the original text (Maraini and Peters 2024).

Reception

　　After Polo’s text became available in Latin, some Dominican friars focussed on using it for the sake of advancing knowledge in history. Pipino subsequently refers to his own translation of the text to compose the Chronicon, which was completed by 1322. This text is an attempt to produce a universal history and it covers the regions of England, France, Germany and Italy from 754 to 1317. It deals in particular with the lives and contributions of emperors as well as popes. Pipino includes in the Chronicon the stories of miracles which supposedly occurred at Baghdad, Iraq and Samarkand, Uzbekistan as reported by Polo (Crea 2020, 143).

　　Jacopo d’Acqui, a friar from Piedmont, also used Polo’s text to compose the Chronicon imaginis mundi, which was completed by 1334. Jacopo consulted the LB version (Latin). His unpublished text is an attempt to produce an account of important events from the creation of the world to the papacy of Boniface VIII in the thirteenth century. It deals in particular with the historical conditions of Lombardy and Piedmont (Gadrat-Ouerfelli 2022, 290).

　　Other Dominican friars were interested in Polo’s text for the sake of developing resources for preaching. Pietro Calo da Chioggia included a quotation from Polo’s text in his work Legendarium, which was written between 1332 and 1340. This text is a collection of biographies of saints and martyrs which was composed by consulting multiple sources. Pietro Calo cites a passage from Polo’s text about Thomas who was an apostle of Jesus. Thomas is believed to have been a missionary in India, where he is recognised as the founder of the Malabar Christians. Similarly, Nicoluccio d’Ascoli included a quotation about Thomas the apostle from Polo’s text in a sermon, which was composed between 1330 and 1340. Pietro Calo and Nicoluccio consulted the Z version (Latin) (Gadrat-Ouerfelli 2022, 290).

　　Filippo da Ferrara included several quotations from Polo’s text in his De introductione loquendi, which was written between 1328 and 1345. Filippo also consulted the Z version (Latin). This conversation manual is an original collection of exempla and short stories meant for a preacher to speak about Christian morality. This text contains more than four hundred exempla that are drawn from homilies as well as oral and written narratives. It also includes bestiaries, that is, moralising allegories about the appearances or actions of animals (that may be real or imaginary) (Gadrat-Ouerfelli 2022, 289-290).

　　The reception of Marco Polo extended beyond the Dominican friars in Italy to those in England. Thomas Waleys included several quotations from Polo’s text in his work Moralitates super Vetum Testamentum, which was completed by 1327. Thomas consulted the P version (Latin), which is the one produced by Pipino. The genre of ‘moralitates’ refer to Christian exegetical readings of Old Testament stories that could be used for preaching. It serves as a collection of exempla that are presented as biblical commentary. Thomas’ text covers the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Isaiah and Ruth. He may have composed it from a series of lessons that he taught during the period he was appointed lector at Bologna between 1326 and 1327 (Gadrat-Ouerfelli 2016, 611).

Contributions

　　“The relationship between the Dominicans and Marco Polo’s text is remarkable for many reasons, not the least of which is that a major religious order was crucial to the preservation and dissemination of a text written by a layman” (Gadrat-Ouerfelli 2022, 287). This paper concludes that the early work by the Italian Dominicans recounted above contributed significantly to the transmission and reception of Polo’s text in Europe.

　　The translation work of Pipino was clearly instrumental for the transmission of Polo’s text from Bologna to other parts of Italy and then to other regions of Europe. To better appreciate Pipino’s work, his contribution to the transmission of Marco Polo could very well be compared to William of Moerbeke’s contribution to the transmission of Aristotle. William (1215-1286) is a Dominican friar from Belgium who became an important translator as well as an archbishop. At the request of Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274), William translated some texts of Aristotle from Greek into Latin, including On the Heavens and Meteorology. He also translated portions of the Metaphysics, Politics, Rhetoric, and History of Animals. As William’s work was considered very reliable and extremely helpful for understanding Aristotle’s thought, it became the standard translation for his fellow Latin speaking scholars of medieval Europe (Britannica 2024).

　　The subsequent work of Pipino and other Italian Dominicans accounted for the reception of the text by utilising and spreading the cultural and religious knowledge acquired and recorded by Polo. Pipino and Jacopo recognised the intellectual value of the text and used it as a primary source for producing their historical works. Not only were the friars interested in using Polo’s text for advancing knowledge in history, they were also quick to use it for improving the practice of preaching. Pietro Calo and Filippo saw the authoritative nature of the text and used it for developing homiletic resources, while Nicoluccio used it as an aid for composing sermons by quoting from it.

　　The travels of Marco Polo reflect a most exciting and fruitful period of cultural, economic and religious exchange between China and the West. While remembering Polo and his achievements which took place during the thirteenth century, it is appropriate to recall the efforts of the Dominican friars who played a part in making The Travels of Marco Polo a great success in Europe during the fourteenth century.

Edmond Eh, University of Saint Joseph, Macau.

REFERENCES

• Bartoli Langeli, A. (2019). “Il testamento di Marco Polo. Edizione.” In Plebani, T. (ed.) Il testamento di Marco Polo. Il documento, la storia, il contesto. Milan: Edizioni Unicopli.
• Bolognari, M. (2020). “Marco Polo e il convento dei SS. Giovanni e Paolo nella ‘roulette veneziana’.” In Conte, M., Montefusco, A. and Simion, S. (eds.) “Ad consolationem legentium.” Il Marco Polo dei Domenicani (pp. 15-38). Venice, Edizioni Ca’Foscari.
• Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2024). “William of Moerbeke.” In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-of-Moerbeke.
• Bullough, S. (2024). “St. Dominic.” In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Dominic.
• Crea, S. (2020) “La traduzione latina del Devisement du monde nel Chronicon di Francesco Pipino.” In Conte, M., Montefusco, A. and Simion, S. (eds.) “Ad consolationem legentium.” Il Marco Polo dei Domenicani (pp. 143-156). Venice, Edizioni Ca’Foscari.
• Gadrat-Ouerfelli, C. (2015). Lire Marco Polo au Moyen Âge: Traduction, diffusion et reception du “Devisement du monde.” Turnhout, Brepols.
• Gadrat-Ouerfelli, C. (2016). “Marco Polo en Angleterre: nouvelles recherches sur la diffusion de son récit dans les îles Britanniques.” In Giraud, C. and Poirel, D. (eds.) La rigueur et la passion. Mélanges en l’honneur de Pascale Bourgain (pp. 597-616). Turnhout, Brepols.
• Gadrat-Ouerfelli, C. (2022). “Marco Polo, the Book, and the Dominicans.” Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures, 11 (2), 286-301.
• Maraini, F. and Peters, E. (2024). “Marco Polo.” In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marco-Polo.
• Polo, M. (2015). The Travels. Cliff, N. (trans.). London: Penguin Books.

Click here to view the PDF version