Ystoria Mongalorum - The Tartar Relation

The Tartar Relation

A manuscript of a variant of the Ystoria, written by Minorite friar C. de Bridia, perhaps based on Joannes's lectures, appeared on the art market in the 1950s and was purchased for Yale University. This Tartar Relation describes Joannes's journey, including details that did not make it into his own written account. The manuscript is perhaps most known because it was bound with a manuscript of Vincent of Beauvais' popular encyclopedia Speculum historiale and a spurious map on vellum, the notorious "Vinland map"- no such map is included with a second, older Hystoria/Speculum manuscript volume found more recently. Another theory of the origin of Historia Tartarorum proposes that it was a record made by a Silesian friar (de Bridia meaning "of Brzeg") from an oral account by Joannes' companion Benedykt Polak during final stages of the journey; C. de Bridia was ordered to put Benedykt's account into writing by Fr Bogusław, the head of Franciscan order in Poland and Bohemia.

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