*

But direct information about the East was also available. A number of
merchants and missionaries penetrated even as far as China, and have
left accounts of their travels. Such an account of India and Ceylon was
given as early as the sixth century by Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes.
The names of Benjamin of Tudela (about 1160 A.D.) and of Marco Polo
(1271-1295) are familiar to every student of historical geography. The
Mongol rulers during the period of their dominion over China were in
active communication with the popes and allowed Western missionaries
free access to their realm. A number of these missionaries also came to
India or Persia, for instance Giovanni de Montecorvino (1289-1293),[8]
Odorico da Pordenone (1316-1318),[9] Friar Jordanus (1321-1323, and
1330)[10] and Giovanni de Marignolli (1347).[11] In the fifteenth
century Henry III of Castile sent Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo as ambassador
to Timur, and towards the end of that century several Venetian
Ambassadors, Caterino Zeno (1472), Josaphat Barbaro (1473) and Ambrosio
Contarini (1473), were at the Persian Court in order to bring about
united action on the part of Venice and Persia against the Turks.[12]
These embassies attracted considerable attention in Europe, as is shown
by numerous pamphlets concerning them, published in several European
countries.[13] In this same century Nicolo de Conti travelled in India
and the account of his wanderings has been recorded by Poggio.[14]

As we see, most of these travellers are Italians. We know of but one
German, before the year 1500, who went further than the Holy Land, and
that is Johann Schildberger of Munich, whose book of travel was printed
in 1473. Taken prisoner while fighting in Turkish service against Timur
at Angora, he remained in the East from 1395 to 1417, and got as far as
Persia. His description of that country is very meagre; India, as he
expressly states,[15] he never visited, his statements about that land
being mostly plagiarized from Mandeville.[16]

These accounts, however, while they give valuable information concerning
the physical geography, the wealth, size, and wonderful things of the
countries they describe, have little or nothing to say about the
languages or literatures. All that Conti for instance has to say on this
important subject is contained in a single sentence: "Loquendi idiomata
sunt apud Indos plurima, atque inter se varia."[17]

In these accounts it was not so much trut