La strada per il Catai. Contatti tra Oriente e Occidente al tempo di Marco Polo

Scholarly interest in contacts between Europe and East Asia during the Middle Ages has not faded over time; rather, it has intensified over the past few decades. In addition to the major contributions by European and American scholars from the 1990s, it is important to remember the numerous works dedicated to this topic by Chinese, Korean, and Japanese scholars. Cross-disciplinary dialogue has become essential in a research environment where multiple, highly varied interests and skills cross paths. These specific needs have inspired the international conference The Road to Cathay. East-West Contacts in Marco Polo’s time. In the mid-13th century a particular phase of the contacts between the Western and the Far Eastern worlds began, which ended with the fall of the Yuan dynasty. The unification of most of Asia and Eastern Europe under the Mongols led to the formation of a new space for religious, economic, and cultural exchanges, which stretched from the Danube to the shores of the Pacific. For over a century, emissaries, missionaries, and merchants travelled from West to East and from East to West, moving along the Silk Road or sailing along the sea route that linked the Persian Gulf with southern China. The first Europeans to penetrate into the heart of the Mongol empire were the Franciscans Giovanni da Pian di Carpine and William of Rubrouck, and the Dominicans Ascelin and Andrée de Longjumeau. A few decades later, numerous travellers reached as far as Khanbaliq (modern Beijing), the new capital of the Great Khan: Marco Polo, Giovanni da Montecorvino, Odoric of Pordenone, Giovanni dei Marignolli, etc. Material wealth and ideas circulated along with the movement of people. A flow of information reached Europe, gradually reshaping the traditional, consolidated image of East Asia that the Middle Ages inherited from classical sources. With the end of the Mongol dominance in China, the exchanges between Europe and East Asia came to a sharp halt. Nevertheless, the data gathered by travellers up to then continued to circulate, even during the period of Renaissance humanism, often melding with the scant information from Antiquity.