302 Aster History; SIMON JANUENSIS 
Meyer,* “to undertake those journey-labors of which the follow- 
ing centuries were full.” He “ herborized,” says Lacroix, ¢ “in 
the Aegean islands and in Sicily ’’—as Sprengel remarks, } “ut 
plantas in loco natali observaret.”” From Simon’s own preface 
Meyer quotes him as saying that “for almost thirty years he had 
followed the investigation of the right names of medical plants 
and of economic plants, and with that aim he not only made dili- 
gent study of the works of the Greek, Roman, Arabic and later 
writers, from which he made a long catalog and which he com- 
pared with each other, but also out of many different quarters of 
Dei,’’ printed at Hanover, 1611 ; with ‘‘ brief botanical part, not a whole page; ? was 
revered by Cantiprato; ‘‘knew Greek and Arabic; but mixed the seen and unseen, 
the truth and the fable.”’ Meyer, 4: 11 
1246, John de Piano Carpini of the Giey Friars, was sent as ambassador to a Tartar 
chief from the Pope ; his ‘ Travels of Carpini’’ was translated by Vincent of Beauvais: 
1253, Guillaume Picard, another Grey Friar, and Guillaume de Rubruquis, 4 
theicnataenas, were similarly sent to Tartary by St. Louis, Zacrozx. 
1260? Pierre Ascelin, a Franciscan, sent to Mongolia by the Pope, Lacroix. 
1260, Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, Venetian brothers, leave Constantinople oe 
ee projects in the Crimea, and finally to Bokhara and thence to the Court of Kub- 
lai Khan, from whom they returned in 1269 with Kublai’s request from the Pope “for 
too educators.”’ Two Dominicans sent soon turned bac 
1271, Marco Polo, son of Nicolo, begins his famous journey to Kublai Khan, with 
his father pee ‘eas, reaching him 1275, starting home 1292, all reaching Venice 1295- 
His ‘‘ Travels” were first taken down from his dictation in 1299 in French, while & 
prisoner in Genoa. 
1280, ‘‘ Gilbertus and Henricus de Arviell travelled from England, ence 
Giese tia aaa Asia, their object being to study plants and prepar 
treatise,” Lacroix. ‘* An Englishman of the name of Henry Arviel, w 
much, and veilded for some time at Bologna, about the year 1280. 
Botanica, sive Stirpium Varia Historia,” Pulteney, 1 : 22, quoting from 
321, Marinus Sanutus, the elder, surnamed Torsellus, pares to t 
in sai his ‘‘ Liber secretorum...Terrae Sacrae ’’ was printed in : 
8, Odoricus de Porto a or , Olas ic of Pordenone, the vie to go in cant 
Polo's baie; a Franciscan monk, born 1286, missionary to China and Thibet i 
died 1330; author of a description of his journey, by way of Pereeypree , Trebizons 
Ormuz, Malabar, Ceylon and China; described the ‘* Vegetable Lam ae 
began to appear figured, as a plant-animal monstrosity. 
1336, William of Boldensele; a traveller and writer respecting ¢ the j and 
Holy Land; from whose work and the preceding it is claimed that the casa a 
popular but fictitious Travels of Sir John Mandeville were compiled, profes 
eh pees of a knight eet for Palestine and India from St. Albans, in —< 
eyer, Geschichte, 4 : 165. 
cn History of —. and Literature in the Middle Ages. 
t Sprengel, Geschichte, 1: 
through 
tanical 
a botan 
ae travelled 
e left a MS. 
Bishop Tanner. 
e Orient 
