CARPINI, JOHANNES DE PLANO. 



CARRARA, DA. 



intention of these people might be assuredly known and made manifest 

 to Christendom, lest suddenly invading us, they should find us unpre- 

 pared, and so make incredible slaughter of the Christian people." In 

 Poland and Russia, and wherever the widely-spread Slavonian language 

 was spoken, Friar Benedict the Pole served the Italian as interpreter. 

 The two monks ran great danger of being murdered by the people of 

 Lithuania, who appear to have been at this time many degrees less 

 civilised than the Mongols. In Russia they were upon the whole 

 hospitably and kindly entertained. As the Russians adhered to the 

 Greek or Eastern church, Carpiui in a public meeting exhorted the 

 grand duke and his bishops to abandon their heresy, and boldly read 

 to them the letters of Pope Innocent, wherein they were admonished 

 to return into the unity of the Roman Catholic church. Although 

 our Franciscan effected no conversion, he raised no animosity by this 

 boldness. He and his companion Benedict received good advice as 

 to the best means of dealing with the Tartars, and were sent forward 

 to Kiow, then the chief city of Russia, and not very far from the 

 uncertain movcable frontier of the Mongols. At Kiow they hired an 

 interpreter ; but they afterwards found reason to lament that this 

 man was unequal to the duties he had undertaken to perform. The 

 Mongols at this titne occupied all the country between China, Siberia, 

 and the Caspian Sea, the van of this nomadic pastoral army being on 

 the river Dnieper, and its rear under the great wall of China. The 

 subordinate khans or chiefs passed the two monks onward from post 

 to post until they came to the head-quarters of the great Baatu. 

 These posts were far apart. The country where Baatu had his camp 

 (called by the travellers Comauia) was far beyond the Caspian Sea. 

 But their toils were not yet over : Baatu ordered them to proceed to 

 the court of his sovereign, the Khan of khans and Emperor of all 

 men. They then entered a country called by them 'the country of 

 the pagan Naymani,' where they travelled for many days, till they 

 came to the proper lands of the Mongols. Through this latter country 

 they journeyed for about three weeks, continually riding with great 

 expedition. "In the whole of this journey," say the monks, "we 

 used extraordinary exertion, as our Tartar guides were commanded 

 to bring us on with all expedition: ou which account we always 

 travelled from early morning till night, without stopping to take food; 

 and we often came to our quarters so late, as not to get any food that 

 night, but were forced to eat in the morning what we ought to have 

 had for supper. We changed horses frequently every day, and travelled 

 constantly as hard as our horses could go." It is not easy to name 

 the places or even to trace the route which they followed ; but they 

 appear to have passed by the head of tho Baikal Lake, and to have 

 traversed great part of the country vaguely denominated Chinese 

 Tartary, going in the direction of the ' Everlasting Wall,' or the great 

 wall of China. In all the vast regions occupied by the Mongols and 

 their flocks and herds there was not one fixed town, there was scarcely 

 a house ; for the people of all degrees, and even their khans and the 

 very emperor himself, lived constantly in tents, and moved from place 

 to place as pasturage, or war, or other business required. Wherever 

 the great chiefs were, tho assemblage of tents and the camp had a 

 name, which the monks set down; but iu all probability, within a 

 short time after their passage, these tents were all struck and removed 

 to a distant quarter, and the populous spot was left a solitude in the 

 vast surrounding wilderness. They must have found the Emperor or 

 Great Khan somewhere to the north of the sandy desert which spreads 

 itself between the Great Wall and Tartary, as there is no mention 

 made of their travelling on camels, or of then- entering upon that 

 desert. Here they do not attempt to name the place, merely calling 

 it the Court of the Emperor. This great potentate, whom they call 

 Kujak or Cuyue Khan, had many spacious touts, one being so vast 

 that it could have contained 2000 men. Princes anil great lords from 

 China, a duke from Russia, two sons of the King of Georgia, and an 

 envoy of the Kalif of Baghdad, were waiting submissively upon the 

 Mongol conqueror. In these circumstances, scarcely intelligible letters 

 aud an admonitory message from the pope delivered by two poor bare- 

 legged friars were not likely to make much impression upon the great 

 shepherd-warrior. While the friars stayed about the gilded tent, a 

 warlike ceremony was performed, which they interpreted into a 

 defiance against tho Church of Rome, the Roman empire, and all the 

 Christian kingdoms and nations of the West; and they were other- 

 wise informed that it was the intention of these Mongols to subdue 

 all the kingdoms of the earth, as Zinghis (Genghis) Khan had com- 

 manded them to do. The Lord of the World however admitted them 

 to an audience, received from them the letters of the pope, and gave 

 them in return letters for his Holiness written in the Mongol language 

 and also in Arabic. The mouks complain that during their stay there, 

 which continued a whole month, they were in such extreme distress 

 for victuals and drink that they could hardly keep themselves alive ; 

 adding tlint they must verily have perished at last if God had not sent 

 to their aid a Russian goldsmith, who was in favour with the emperor, 

 and who procured them some food. At last, on the feast of St. Brice 

 (the 13th of November 1247), they received permission to depart from 

 thin inhospitable court. They returned by the same route, travelling 

 the whole winter through the desert, and often sleeping at night on 

 the snow. On the 9th of June 1248 they reached Kiow, where their 

 Rusmu friends joyfully received them. In all they bad past sixteen 

 months entirely among the Mongols and the people that had been 



conquered by them. Pope Innocent had enjoined them to be diligent 

 and accurate in their observations, aud faithful in reporting what 

 they saw and heard of these strange people who had made all Europe 

 tremble. The friars acted up to these instructions, and, allowance 

 being made for the state of geography and other sciences, and for the 

 condition aud superstitions of the time, the account which Carpini or 

 his friends gave to the world was an admirable little book of travels, 

 the accuracy of which has been confirmed by John Bell of Anter- 

 mony [BELL, JOHN], and other and later travellers through the vast 

 regions which intervene between European Russia and China. Carpini 

 was the first to uproot a set of monstrous fables, aud to give a true 

 and striking picture of the peculiar civilisation of the Tartars. But 

 at the same time he revealed their number, warlike strength, and 

 close political union ; and warned the disunited and distracted king- 

 doms of Christendom that if these hordes moved westward they 

 would be found irresistible, unless a league of Christian princes were 

 previously formed for the singla purpose of opposing them. The 

 chapter entitled ' How the Tartars are to be resisted,' is full of good 

 sense. 



It appears that Friar John returned to Italy, and that there, with 

 some assistants, he published his plain unvarnished account of his 

 travels in a ' Libellus," or small book, in Latin. Of this book or manu- 

 script (of which no doubt there wero once many copies) we have 

 never been able to obtain a sight It seeiua to be known solely 

 through the ' Speculum Historiale ' of Vinceutius B^lvacensis, where it 

 is inserted at full length, together with some information about their 

 journey, which the author or editor, Vincentius, says he received from 

 Simon de St. Quintiu, one of the four friars who had gone by the 

 south of the Caspian, and whose information was very meagre com- 

 pared with that of Carpiui. From the ' Speculum Historiale' Ramusio 

 transferred all this matter, together with an Italian translation to 

 follow the Latin text, into the second volume of his 'Raccolta di 

 Navigazioui e Viaggi,' which was printed by Giuuti at Venice, iu the 

 year 1556. From this admirable work of Ramusio, our own good 

 compiler, Richard llakluyt, copied the matter into the first volume of 

 his ' Navigations aud Discoveries,' which was published in London 

 towards the clos3 of Queen Elizabeth's reign, in the year 1599. 

 llakluyt, who of course only transfers the Latin text, gives a good 

 sterling translation of his own ; but he omits several passages which 

 are given by Ramusio. From Ramusio or from Hakluyt all modern aud 

 indeed all existing accounts of Carpiui aud Friar Benedict have been 

 drawn. Bergeron gave an abridgment of the matter in his ' Voyages 

 faits principalement en Asia dans les 12, 13', 11 et 15* si&cles, par 

 Benjamin de Tudele, Carpin, Rubruquis, &c.,' la Haye, 1729-55. A 

 somewhat modernised translation of the Latin text of Hakluyt is 

 given in R. KBIT'S 'History and Collections of Voyages and Travels," 

 Edinburgh, 1824. 



CARR, JOHN, a noted English architect in the latter half of the 

 18th century, was born in 1721, at Horbury, near Wakefield, York- 

 shire, at which place he afterwards built a church that was founded 

 by himself. His practice was very considerable in Yorkshire and the 

 adjoining counties, where he erected several stately mansions, and 

 other buildings both public and private. He was twice lord mayor of 

 York, in 1770 and 1785 ; and realised a handsome fortune, being said 

 to have been at the time of his death worth not less than 150,000^. 

 He died at his residence, Askam Hall, Yorkshire, February 22, 1807, 

 aged eighty-six. Curr belonged to the Anglo-Palladian school, and if 

 he rarely displayed much fancy, he never fell into frippery, like Adam, 

 nor did he, like Wyatt, mistake nakedness and tenuity for simplicity. 

 Among his principal works are the Town Hall at Newark, Notts. ; the 

 Crescent at Buxton ; the Bridge at Boroughbridge ; Harewood House, 

 Yorkshire, one of his best mansions ; Tabley House, and the splendid 

 Mausoleum of the Marquis of Rockingham at Weutworth. This 

 mausoleum is shown in plate 61 of Stieglitz's 'Belle Architecture.' 

 There is a good portrait of Carr in the second volume of Dance's 

 ' Collection of Portraits,' which work also contains the portraits of 

 several other architects of the same period. 



CARHA'RA, DA, the name of an historical family of Italy, which 

 held sovereign sway over Padua and the neighbouring provinces 

 during the middle ages. Like most of the north Italian nobility of 

 that period the Carrara appear to have beeu of Longobard origin. 

 One of their ancestors, by name Luitolf, is recorded as the founder of 

 the abbey of Carrnra, in the territory of Padua, about 1027, and as 

 having built a castle in the neighbourhood, which had feudal jurisdic- 

 tion granted to the owner by tho emperor of Germany. Several of 

 Luitolf's descendants filled municipal offices iu the community of 

 Padua. Mnrsilio da Carrara was put to deat.h by Eccelino, tyrant of 

 Padua. After the death of Kcoelino, in 1259, Padua was restored to 

 its municipal independence as an important member of the Guelf 

 league, and as such found itself at variance with the Delia Scala, lords 

 of Verona, who were Ghibelines. Jacopo da Carrara commanded tha 

 troops of 1'adua against Can della Scala iu the early part of the 14th 

 century. The citizens of Padua, being distracted by factions, elected 

 Jacopo for their lord in 1318. Jacopo died in 1324, and was succeeded 

 by his nephew Marsilio, who, being hard-pressed by the Della Scala of 

 Verona, was assisted by the republic of Venice in repelling them. He 

 died in 1338, and was succeeded by his nephew Ubertino, who, dyiu 

 in 1345, waa succeeded by Marsilietto his relative, who belonged to 



