Katarina Vilioni

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Facsimile of the illustration of the 1342 tomb of Katarina Vilioni, member of an Italian trading family in Yangzhou.
Facsimile of the illustration of the 1342 tomb of Katarina Vilioni, member of an Italian trading family in Yangzhou.

Katarina Vilioni was an Italian woman, member of a trader familly in Yangzhou, China, during the 14th century. She is known through a tombstone which was discovered among the ramparts of Yangzhou in 1951 by the People's Liberation Army. The tombstone is inscribed in the Gothic script, and explains that she died in 1342, and was the daughter of Domenico Vilioni. The tombsone also contains depictions of the matyrdom of Saint Catherine.

The existence of this tombstone in Yangzhou, a few years after the visit of Marco Polo who had some administrative role in the city, suggests that there was a thriving Italian community in the city, probably involved in silk trade.[1]

The tombstone reads:

In nomine Dñi amen hic jacet
Katerina filia q<u>ondam Domini
Dñici de Vilionis que obiit in
anno Domini mileximo[2] CCC
XXXX II de mense Junii

"In the name of the Lord, amen. Here lies Caterina former[3] daughter of signore Domenico de Vilioni, who died in A.D. 1342, in the month of June."

The Medieval scholar Robert Lopez has corrected the reading of the familly name to "Ilioni", and related the father to a certain "Dominico Ilioni", who was inscribed in 1348 in the registers of the city of Genoa in relation to a merchant named Jacopo de Oliverio, who is said by that document to have lived in the "Kingdom of Cathay", where he multiplied his capital five-fold.[4]

Another smaller plaque was discovered a few year later, together with a Christian sculpture and a short inscription mentioning the death of the son of the same Dominico, named Antonio, in November 1344.

This Italian community would have been supported by some form of religious structure. In 1322, the Franciscan Odoric de Pordenone visited Yangzhou, and said he resided among Franciscans there, and that there were also three Nestorian churches in the city.[5]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Frances Wood, p125-126
  2. ^ Mileximo written for milesimo, due to Italian pronunciation.
  3. ^ Or "daughter of the former (etc.)" The word "former" of course refers to the fact that both are dead.
  4. ^ "The Chan's Great Continent", Chap 1, Jonathan D.Spence here, also: "Les Mondes de Marco Polo", p.9
  5. ^ "The Chan's Great Continent", Chap 1, Jonathan D.Spence here, also: "Les Mondes de Marco Polo", p.10

[edit] References

  • "The Silk Road", Frances Wood, University of California Press, ISBN 0520243404
  • "The Chan's Great Continent", Chap 1, Jonathan D. Spence, W. W. Norton & Company online
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