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Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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312 MARIGNOLLI'S RECOLLECTIONS OF EASTERN TRAVEL.
Marignolli was, in the middle ages, one of the most influential in Florence, and its members were generally leaders in the Guelf faction. They were expelled from the Republic on the defeat of that party at Montaperti in 1260,1
" Lo strazio e'l grande scempio Che fece l'Arbia colorata in rosso,'
but after a few years effected their return, and long continued to
give many gonfaloniers and other magistrates to the city. In
the seventeenth century, however, they were already quite ex-
tinct. A street in Florence near the cathedral, now called Via
de' Cerretani, is still marked as having formerly borne their name
(Già de' Marignolli).2
The date of John's birth is not known. But it may be guessed
from the wandering garrulity of his • recollections, that he was
an aged man, when, some time about 1355, he put them on
paper ; and this is confirmed by a circumstance which will be
cited below. He was therefore born, in all probability, before
1290.
He was a member of the Franciscan monastery of Santa Croce 1
in Florence, to which he apparently refers in his story, when he tells us that on his return from the East he deposited a certain Indian garment in the sacristy of the Minorites in that city.
He is known for certain as the author of two works in Tuscan: one a History of St. Onufrio ; the other a work called The Acts of the Apostles, whether a translation of Scripture or a collection of legends, I do not know. Both are said to be cited as authorities in Italian by the Della Crusca vocabulary. But he is also supposed to have been the John of Florence who wrote a History of his Order, and a treatise on the Canonization of St. Francis, works which formerly existed in the library of Santa Croce. Sbaralea also regards as probably written by Marignolli a small Italian work on The Flowers of St. Francis, which was printed by
1 G. Villani, Istoria Fiorentina, book v, e. 79, 80.
2 The last fact is from personal observation. Others in this paragraph are partly from Italia Sacra of Ughelli (Venice, 1717, i, 522), and partly
from a respectable Tuscan authority the reference to which I have omitted to note.
3 Sbaralca, u.s.
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