Volume 1: On the footsteps of brother Odoric. Relations between Europe and Mongolian China in the 13th and 14th centuries (with BIBLIOTECA ODORICIANA)

Odoric of Pordenone (1280/85 – 1331), a Franciscan missionary, born (according to the tradition) at Villanova near Pordenone (Friuli, Italy), ranks among the most important persons travelling in the 13th/14th centuries to China. He has widely promoted knowledge of the Southeast and East Asia in Europe. The most valuable is his description of China, the cities along its coast, in particular, and the capital, where he has spent three years.

Shortly after his return, in May 1330, Odoric related the story of his travels to Friar William of Solagna, who wrote it in homely Latin. The fame of his vast journeys appears to have made a much greater impression on the laity of his native territory than on his Franciscan brethren. Popular acclamation made him an object of devotion, the municipality erected a noble shrine for his body, and his fame as saint and traveller had spread far and wide before the middle of the century, but it was not till four centuries later (1755) that the papal authority formally sanctioned his beatification.

The numerous copies of Odoric’s narrative (both of the original text and of the versions in French, Italian, German &c.) that have come down to our time, chiefly from the 14th century, show how speedily and widely it acquired popularity. Five Latin manuscripts are also in Czech libraries. Odoric’s account has come a valuable source for the most up-to-date cartographical work of the 14th century, the Catalan Atlas.

The present book – the first scholarly publication about this person and his time in Czech language – is summarizing the known data about Odoric and his travel to China and back, including some recent studies made mainly by Italian researchers, on the background of the development in the Mongolian Empire during the 13th/14th centuries and its contacts with Europe.

The study is annexed by BIBLIOTECA ODORICIANA (in English and the respective original languages), an extensive list of manuscripts and printed materials regarding Odoric (numbering 532 items).