Ricoldo of Montecroce

Ricoldo of Montecroce (It:Riccoldo da Monte di Croce; Pennini, that is "son of Pennino"), c.1243 - 1320, was a Dominican missionary to the court of the Mongol Il-Khan ruler Arghun, of whom he wrote that he was "a man given to the worst of villainy, but for all that a friend of the Christians". [Jackson, p.176]

Born in Florence, his family named originated from a small castle just above Pontassieve. After studying in various major European schools, he became a Dominican, 1267; was a professor in several convents of Tuscany (1272-99), made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (1288), and then travelled for many years as a missionary in western Asia. He arrived in Mossul in 1289, equipped with a Papal bull. He failed to convinced the Nestorian Christian mayor of the city to convert to Catholicism. [Roux, p.411]

Moving to Baghdad, Ricoldo entered in conflict with the local Nestorian Christians, preaching against them in their own cathedral. He was allowed nonetheless by Mongol authorities to build his own church, with the interdiction to preach in public. Ricoldo brought the matter to the Nestorian patriarch Mar Yaballaha, who agreed with him that the doctrine of Nestorius, namely the duality of Christ (thus achieving a theoretical fusion of the Latin Church and the Church of the East) was heretical. Mar Yaballaha was however disavowed by his own followers. [Roux, p.411]

He returned to Florence before 1302, and was chosen to high offices in his order. His "Itinerarium" (written about 1288-91) [published in the original Latin in Leipzig; 1864; in Italian in Florence, 1793; in French in Paris, 1877] was intended as a guide-book for missionaries, and is a description of the Oriental countries he visited. The "Epistolæ de Perditione Acconis" are five letters in the form of lamentations over the fall of Ptolemais (written about 1292, published in Paris, 1884). Ricoldo's best known work was the "Contra Legem Sarracenorum", written in Baghdad, which has in previous centuries been very popular among Christians as a polemical source against Islam, and has been often edited (first published in Seville, 1500).

The "Christianæ Fidei Confessio facta Sarracenis" (printed in Basle, 1543) is attributed to Ricoldo, and was probably written about the same time as the above mentioned works. Other works are: "Contra errores Judæorum" (Against the Errors of the Jews); "Libellus contra nationes orientales" (MSS. at Florence and Paris); "Contra Sarracenos et Alcoranum" (MS. at Paris); "De variis religionibus" (MS. at Turin). Very probably the last three works were written after his return to Europe. Ricoldo is also known to have written two theological works--a defence of the doctrines of Thomas Aquinas (in collaboration with John of Pistoia, about 1285) and a commentary on the "Libri sententiarum" (before 1288). Ricoldo began a translation of the Quran about 1290, but it is not known whether this work was completed.

He died in Florence on 31 October, 1320.

Notes

References

* Atwood, Christopher P. (2004). "The Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire". Facts on File, Inc. ISBN 0-8160-4671-9.
* (ISBN 0-295-98391-4) page 87
* Foltz, Richard (2000). "Religions of the Silk Road : overland trade and cultural exchange from antiquity to the fifteenth century". New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-23338-8.
* Jackson, Peter, "The Mongols and the West", Pearson Education Ltd, ISBN 0582368960
* Roux, Jean-Paul, "Histoire de l'Empire Mongol", Fayard, ISBN 2213031649
* Emilio Panella, "Ricerche su Riccoldo da Monte di Croce", Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 58 (1988) 5-85.
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