ong the vast line that stretches from Genoa and Florence to
the marts of Cheh-kiang and Fu-kien. The record is very fragmentary and
imperfect, but many circumstances and incidental notices show how
frequently the remote East was reached by European traders in the first
half of the 14th century--a state of things which it is very difficult
to realize when we see how all those regions, when reopened to knowledge
two centuries later, seemed to be discoveries as new as the empires
which, about the same time, Cortes and Pizarro were conquering in the
West.

This commercial intercourse probably began about 1310-1320. John of
Monte Corvino, writing in 1305, says it was twelve years since he had
heard any news from Europe; the only Western stranger who had arrived
in all that time being a certain Lombard chirurgeon (probably one of
the _Patarini_ who got hard measure at home in those days), who had
spread the most incredible blasphemies, about the Roman Curia and the
order of St Francis. Yet even on his first entrance to Cathay Friar
John had been accompanied by one Master Peter of Lucolongo, whom he
describes as a faithful Christian man and a great merchant, and who
seems to have remained many years at Peking. The letter of Andrew,
bishop of Zayton (1326), quotes the opinion of Genoese merchants at
that port regarding a question of exchanges. Odoric, who was in Cathay
about 1323-1327, refers for confirmation of the wonders which he
related of the great city of Cansay (i.e. King-sze, or Hang-chow) to
the many persons whom he had met at Venice since his return, who had
themselves been witnesses of those marvels. And Marignolli, some
twenty years later, found attached to one of the convents at Zayton,
in Fu-kien, a _fondaco_ or factory for the accommodation of the
Christian merchants.

But by far the most distinct and notable evidence of the importance
and frequency of European trade with Cathay, of which silk and silk
goods formed the staple, is to be found in the commercial hand-book
(c. 1340) of Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, a clerk and factor of the
great Florentine house of the Bardi, which was brought to the ground
about that time by its dealings with Edward III. of England. This
book, called by its author _Libro di divisamenti di Paesi_, is a sort
of trade-guide, devoting successive chapters to the various ports and
markets of his time, detailing the nature of import