Odorico of Pordenone's Trip to China between Ethnography and Myth

The friar minor Odoric of Pordenone travelled to Asia and especially to China in the third decade of the fourteenth century. He was one of the first Europeans to reach Khanbaliq (Beijing), then the capital of the Yuan Empire. After his return to Italy in 1330, he dictated to a brother friar a detailed account of his travels, which is usually known as Relatio. This work is an extremely important document for the history of the relationships between Europe and Mongol China in the Middle Ages. A few passages in the Relado represent a fusion of fact and local legend; therefore, various scholars have expressed doubts about Odoric's credibility. Nevertheless, his approach to reality turns out to be quite different from the medieval imagery of the Orient and appears to anticipate the modern worldview.