SIMONE of SAINT-QUENTIN. - Dominican writer, d. c. 1250.
He is credited with the Iter Persicum fratris Ascelini et sociorum suorum, preserved in Vincenzo di Beauvais, Speculum historiale (Nuremberg 1471), bk. XXXIII, chs. 26–29, 32, 34, 49–52. On the occasion of the Council of Lyons, Innocent IV dispatched four Dominicans to the Tartars to urge them to desist from massacres and to receive the truth of the faith: Ascelino, S., Alberico, and Alessandro. Following the southern route through Acre, Armenia, and Georgia, after staying in the spring of 1247 at the Dominican house in Tiflis, they reached Persia in July, where they met the general Batchu, but obtained no positive result. On their return journey, the Dominicans were accompanied by Tatars who were received by the Pope. Soranzo expresses reservations about S.’s accounts, which Altaner accepts in accordance with Dominican tradition.