Italy / China: 'The Departure of Odoric' (de Pordenone, 1286 - 1331), Franciscan friar, missionary,...

Odoric of Pordenone, OFM (1286–1331), also known as Odorico Mattiussi or Mattiuzzi, was an Italian late-medieval Franciscan friar and missionary explorer. His account of his visit to China was an important source for the account of John Mandeville. Many of the incredible reports in Mandeville have proven to be garbled versions of Odoric's eyewitness descriptions. Seventy-three manuscripts of Odoric's narrative are known to exist in Latin, French and Italian: of these the most important, of about 1350, is in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.