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"E fu indutta prima da Noe,
E fu cagion lo vin, perche si egge:
Ch' egli e un paese, dove
Son molti servi in parte di Cathay:
Che per questa cagione
Hanno a nimico il vino,
E non ne beon, ne voglion vedere."
The author was born the year before Dante (1264), and though he lived
to 1348 it is probable that the poems in question were written in his
earlier years. Cathay was no doubt known by dim repute long before
the final return of the Polos, both through the original journey of
Nicolo and Maffeo, and by information gathered by the Missionary
Friars. Indeed, in 1278 Pope Nicolas III., in consequence of
information said to have come from Abaka Khan of Persia, that Kublai
was a baptised Christian, sent a party of Franciscans with a long
letter to the Kaan Quobley, as he is termed. They never seem to have
reached their destination. And in 1289 Nicolas IV. entrusted a similar
mission to Friar John of Monte Corvino, which eventually led to very
tangible results. Neither of the Papal letters, however, mentions
Cathay. (See Mosheim, App. pp. 76 and 94.)
[5] See Muratori, IX. 583, seqq.; Bianconi, Mem. I. p. 37.
[6] This Friar makes a strange hotch-potch of what he had read, e.g.:
"The Tartars, when they came out of the mountains, made them a king,
viz., the son of Prester John, who is thus vulgarly termed Vetulus de
la Montagna!" (Mon.
