1286?-1331

Italian Missionary

Odoric of Pordenone was a Franciscan missionary who traveled extensively throughout Asia. He was the first European traveler to describe distinctions between Oriental and Occidental culture accurately and in detail. While Marco Polo (1254-1324) is perhaps better known to the modern reader as the first European explorer to provide accounts of the Far East, Polo did not provide as many details regarding what Europeans viewed as the peculiarities of the Chinese people. Furthermore, Odoric was the first European to enter Lhasa, the capital of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhists.

Before Odoric's death, a manuscript was prepared that detailed his travels. John Mandeville (c. 14th century) used this account and added extensive elaborations and fabrications in his own work. The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, loosely based on Odoric's journeys, was particularly popular in the later Middle...