Tartar Relation

This mission was led by Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, who was accompanied by Benedict of Poland and the Bohemians Ceslaus and Stephen.

[1][2] During their return journey through Europe, Carpine wrote that they were obliged to hand over drafts of their official report to the curious.

In October 1247, Benedict also dictated an account known as the De itinere Fratrum Minorum ad Tartaros.

[1][2] George D. Painter, on the other hand, argued that de Bridia wrote the account based on a lecture given by Benedict of Poland, probably in Germany, since the manuscript tradition of the text is associated with the Upper Rhineland.

[3] Gregory Guzman argues that Benedict must have given lectures in his native Polish, which de Bridia translated into Latin.

In 2006, an earlier copy of the text in the Lucerne Central and University Library was brought to public attention (having been catalogued as early as 1959).

[7] The scribe, Hugo de Tennach, was employed by Peter of Bebelnhein, a teacher in the cathedral of Basel and the prior of Saint Martin's Church in Colmar.

[12] It is an ethnographic report, although it also contains legendary material borrowed from the mirabilia (wonders) genre,[1] perhaps because, as a non-traveler, de Bridia considered them missing from the accounts of the travelers.

[17] Compared to the Ystoria and Benedict's De itinere, the Relation lacks information on the friars' travels.

His account of Genghis Khan's rise, however, is marred by legendary material, such as his encounter with Gog and Magog, inspired by the Alexander Romance.

[3] In places, the text of the Relation uses the correct spelling Tataros rather than the corrupt form Tartaros common in Europe.