JOHN of PLANO CARPINI. - Franciscan, missionary; born toward the end of the 12th century at Pian del Carpine (Perugia), he took the Franciscan habit. The first information about him dates from 1221, when he was sent by St. Francis to Germany with the second expedition of Friars Minor, for which he prepared the way (cf. Giordano da Giano, Cronica, in Anal. Franc., I, 9).
In 1222 he was elected custos of Saxony, founding convents in various German cities (Hildesheim, Albertstadt, Magdeburg, etc.); in 1228 he became provincial minister of Teutonia and in 1230, while traveling to the General Chapter at Assisi, he founded the convent at Metz. The General Chapter entrusted him with the government of the friars in Spain. He returned in 1233 to govern Saxony, remaining there for six years and extending the Order into Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland. Between 1239 and 1245 there is no information about him. But in the latter year Innocent IV sent him as his legate to the Tartars, and in sixteen months he completed his mission, returning to remain three months with the Supreme Pontiff. Afterward he was dispatched as ambassador to Louis IX of France to dissuade him from the crusade to the Holy Land. Elected bishop of Antivari (the year is not precisely known), in 1248 he took possession of his see amid disputes and difficulties that lasted until his death, which occurred on 10 August 1252.
The fruit of his legation to the Tartars is his Historia Mongolorum, which, besides four introductory chapters treating of the geography, customs, religion, and way of life of the Tartars, contains a rapid historical synthesis of the growth of the empire and a detailed description of their army and methods of warfare, vividly depicting their cruelties to spur the Westerners to arm themselves and unite against so powerful and dangerous an enemy. This is the purpose of the report. In a second redaction he added further chapters with more detailed and personal observations. The report is of very great historical and ethnographic value; it was published several times and translated into various languages. The most recent and best edition is that edited by Fr. A. van den Wyngaert, in Sinica Franciscana, I, pp. 27-130.