Wicksteed, Philip H., and Edmund G. Gardner. Dante and
Giovanni del Virgilio. Westminster: A. Constable, 1902.
(Reprint, New York: Haskell House, 1970.)
Gary P. Cestaro
GIOVANNI DI PIANO CARPINI
(c. 1180–1252)
Giovanni was born at Pian di Carpini (Piano delia Ma-
gione) in Umbria and was a fi rst-generation Franciscan,
from c. 1220. He served as a provincial offi cial in Ger-
many, Spain, and possibly Barbary. His fame, however,
rests on his mission to the court of the Mongol khan.
Pope Innocent IV chose Giovanni and two other
friars to act as emissaries to protest against the Mon-
gols’ expansion into Christian Europe, perhaps to gain
aid against militant Islam, and to observe the Mongols
closely. The party departed from Lyon in April 1245
and arrived at Karakorum on 22 July 1246. The new
khan, Kuyuk (enthroned on 24 August) promised noth-
ing and made no concessions, dismissing the envoys in
November. After a hard winter’s journey they arrived in
Kiev in June 1247, and they were with the pope in Lyon
seventeen months later. The pope made Giovanni bishop
of Antivari (Dalmatia) in 1248; but after a dispute over
the see Giovanni returned to Italy, where he died, near
Perugia, on 1 August 1252.
Giovanni’s Historic Mongolorum (Mongol History),
or Liber Tatarorum (Book of the Tartars), constitutes his
offi cial report on the mission. It is a generally reliable
discussion of the territories traversed and the peoples
encountered. Although it was not published in full until
the nineteenth century, it circulated in Europe and was
used by, among others, Vincent of Beauvais (Speculum
Historiale, c. 1260) and Roger Bacon (Opus mains, c.
1266).
Further Reading
Dawson, Christopher, ed. The Mission to Asia. Toronto: Univer-
sity of Toronto Press, 1986.
Saunders, J. J. “John of Plan Carpini: The Papal Envoy to the
Mongol Conquerors Who Traveled through Russia to Eastern
Asia in 1245–1247.” History Today, 22, 1972, pp. 547–555.
Spuler, Benold. History of the Mongols, Based on Eastern and
Western Accounts of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries,
trans. Helga and Stuart Drummond. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1972.
Joseph P. Byrne
GIUSTO DE’ MENABUOI
(fl. 14th century)
Giusto de’ Menabuoi was a northern Italian painter. The
earliest secure record of him is a dismembered polyptych
signed and dated March 1363, of Milanese provenance
(parts of this polyptych are now in the Kress Collection
at the University of Georgia at Athens). A signed and
dated tabernacle of 1367 (now in the National Gallery,
London) was also painted in Milan, according to its
inscription. Some frescoes in and near Milan may be
attributed to Giusto on the basis of their style. The most
signifi cant of these are in the tribune of the Abbazia di
San Pietro at Viboldone. A Madonna and Child with
saints and donor bears the date 1349; if the attribution
is correct, this would be the artist’s earliest surviving
work. The Last Judgment on the three other walls of the
tribune was done by Giusto after an interval of at least
fi ve years. No documents mentioning Giusto have been
found in the Milanese archives, and none dealing with
his origins in Florence has yet come to light.
That Giusto was born and trained in Florence is evi-
dent from his style and from documents in the Paduan
archives. He is fi rst documented in Padua in September
1373, but some frescoes in the church of the Eremitani
in that city may be attributed to him and dated c. 1370.
Sometime after 1367, when he painted the tabernacle
that is now in London, Giusto transferred his activities
to Padua. From the time of his arrival there until the
end of his career, he worked for the powerful and ambi-
tious lord of Padua, Francesco da Carrara the Elder, and
Francesco’s court. Giusto was probably called to fi ll the
vacancy left by the death of the most important earlier
local painter, Guariento di Arpo, who had enjoyed the
patronage of the house of Carrara. From 1373 to 1382,
Giusto is mentioned in Paduan documents at regular
intervals. He became a citizen of Padua in April 1375.
After 1382, there is no mention of Giusto in the Paduan
archives until July 1387. He died in Padua sometime
between then and May 1391. His name is inscribed in
1387 in the register of the painters’ guild in Florence,
but there is no evidence that he was there at the time.
The most important works by Giusto in Padua are not
strictly documented, but they are strongly supported by
local tradition and by comparison with signed paintings
from his Lombard period. They are the votive fresco
of the Coronation of the Virgin in the basilica of Saint
Anthony (c.1380); the heavily repainted frescoes in the
Belludi (or Conti) Chapel of the same church, depicting
scenes from the legends of the Blessed Luca Belludi,
Saint James the Less, and Saint Philip, probably newly
completed for the consecration of the chapel in Septem-
ber 1382; and the decoration of the cathedral baptistery.
The Romanesque baptistery was redecorated by Gi-
usto to serve as the mausoleum of Francesco da Carrara
the Elder and his wife, Fina Buzzacarina. Work probably
had been completed by October 1378, when Fina was
buried in her wall tomb (later destroyed). Francesco,
who died in a Visconti prison at Monza, was interred in
November 1393 in a freestanding sepulchre (also later
destroyed). The fresco decoration covers every availableGIUSTO DE’ MENABUOI