RICOLDO DA MONTECROCE. - Dominican traveler and apologist, b. in Florence ca. 1243, d. there on 31 Oct. 1320. A religious in his homeland in 1267, for various years he taught the liberal arts at Pisa (1272-87), at Prato (1287-88), and Florence (1288). In 1288 he began, by order of Nicholas IV, his journey to the East. He traveled through Palestine (in memory of which he was called da Montecroce), Lesser Armenia, Turkey, and Persia, working for the union of the Jacobites in Mosul and of the Nestorians at Baghdad; disputing also with the Muslims. Frightened by the fall of St. John of Acre (18 May 1291), he fled from Baghdad; attacked and robbed, he disguised himself as a camel driver and went to Mosul and to Baghdad. After ten years he is found again in Florence (10 Oct. 1301).

RICOLDO DA MONTECROCE - <em>Incipit of the Confutatio alcorani</em>. 15th-century codex, restored - Vatican Library, cod. Vat. lat. 7317, f. 249. — RICOLDO DA MONTECROCE - *Incipit of the Confutatio alcorani*. 15th-century codex, restored - Vatican Library, cod. Vat. lat. 7317, f. 249.
(ist. Enc. Catt.)

Of his journey R. left an account, the Liber peregrinationis, in which he describes in detail the places touched in the Holy Land, while he is briefer in the topographical indications of the rest of the journey as far as Baghdad. In this second part he dwells more on describing the history, customs, characters and religious beliefs of the populations of the countries visited. He speaks especially of the Mongols, the Tatars and the Sabians, of whom he is the first to provide ample information. The Liber peregrinationis was edited by C. M. Laurent, in Peregrinationes medii aevi quattuor (Leipzig 1864, pp. 101-41); Italian editions by V. Fineschi (Florence 1793), mutilated, and by F. L. Polidori-F. Grottarelli-L. Bianchi (Siena 1864). Information about R.'s journey is also found in his Epistolae V ad Ecclesiam triumphantem (ed. R. Röhrich), in Archives de l'Orient latin, 2 [1884], pp. 258-96). Also important, by R., is the Improbatio Alcorani (Seville 1500), a study on Islam, written at Florence in 1320. Translated into Greek by Demetrius Cydones (ca. 1360) and retranslated from Greek into Latin by B. Picerno (Rome 1506), this retranslation had many editions and caused the original to be forgotten; it was also used by Migne (PG 144, 1035-1152).

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: V. Fineschi, Memorie istoriche degli uomini illustri del convento di S. Maria Novella, Firenze 1790, passim: P. Mandonnet, Fra R. de M., pèlerin en Terre Sainte et missionnaire en Orient, in Revue biblique, 2 (1893), pp. 44-61, 182-222, 584-607; A. Barge, Der Dominikanernönch Ricoldus und seine Missionaresse nach dem Orient, in Allgemeine Missionarzeitschrift, 43 (1916), pp. 27-40; U. Monnerer de Villard, Il libro della Peregrinazione nelle parti dell'Oriente di frate R. da M., Roma 1948.

Alfonso D'Amato

@incollection{ec10_ricoldo_da_montecroce, author = {D'Amato, Alfonso}, title = {Ricoldo da Montecroce}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {886--887}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ricoldo-da-montecroce} }

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