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{{short description|14th-century European Catholic bishop in India (1321–1330)}}
[[File:Flag of the King of Vijayanagara in the Catalan Atlas (1375).png|thumb|Christian flag of the [[Kollam|King of Colombo]], according to the [[Catalan Atlas]] (1375).<ref name="VL4">{{cite journal |last1=Liščák |first1=Vladimír |title=Mapa mondi (Catalan Atlas of 1375), Majorcan cartographic school, and 14th century Asia |journal=International Cartographic Association |date=2017 |volume=1 |pages=4–5 |doi=10.5194/ica-proc-1-69-2018 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2018PrICA...1...69L |url=https://www.proc-int-cartogr-assoc.net/1/69/2018/ica-proc-1-69-2018.pdf}}</ref> Jordan and his "Book of Marvels" (''Mirabilia descripta'', 1340) was probably the source of the information about [[Kollam|Colombo]] in the Catalan Atlas.<ref name="VL4"/>]]
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2015}}
'''Jordan Catala of Sévérac''' ({{fl.|1280}}-{{circa|1330}} also known as ''Jordan de Catalunya''<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LESxDwAAQBAJ&dq=jordan+de+catalunya&pg=PA10 | title=The Ancient Sefer Torah of Bologna: Features and History. European Genizah Texts and Studies, Volume 4 | isbn=978-90-04-41561-4 | last1=Perani | first1=Mauro | date=2 September 2019 | publisher=BRILL }}</ref>) was an [[Occitania]]n [[Dominican order|Dominican]] [[Christian missionary|missionary]] and [[List of explorers|explorer]] in [[Asia]] known for his ''Mirabilia descripta'' describing the marvels of the East.

==Name and family==
Jordan's surname, Catala, is the [[Old Occitan|Occitan]] for "Catalan" (from Latin ''Catalanus''). It probably indicates his family's origins in [[Catalonia]]. Modern French authors occasionally render it ''Catalan'', although a spelling with the final 'n' is not original. The alternative spelling ''Cathala'' is contemporary, but probably does not represent the Occitan pronunciation. The spelling ''Jordan'' is Occitan.<ref name=nom>Christine Gadrat, ed., ''Une image de l'Orient au XIVe siècle: Les Mirabila descripta de Jordan Catala de Sévérac'', Mémoires et Documents de l'École des Chartes 78 (Paris: École des Chartes, 2005), pp. 39–40.</ref>

Jordan's ''Mirabilia descripta'' does not use his surname. It gives his name in Latin as ''Jordanus'' and describes him as ''oriundum de Severaco'', a native of [[Sévérac-le-Château]] in the [[Rouergue]].<ref name=nom/> Local documentation reveals several persons named Catala active in and around Sévérac, including a notary named Jordan active between 1286 and 1318. Jordan's family does not seem to be connected with the {{ill|lords of Sévérac|fr|Famille de Sévérac}}.<ref name=famille>Christine Gadrat, ed., ''Une image de l'Orient au XIVe siècle: Les Mirabila descripta de Jordan Catala de Sévérac'', Mémoires et Documents de l'École des Chartes 78 (Paris: École des Chartes, 2005), pp. 41–42.</ref>

==Birth and education==
Jordan was probably born around 1275–1280, since the normal age for a long-distance emissary was about 45. There is no record of him studying in the Dominican province of Toulouse prior to the separation of the province of Provence in 1302. He probably did not join the Dominicans until later. He may have studied at the [[University of Toulouse]]. He completed his education in the Dominican convents of [[Persia]], where he learned the [[Persian language]].<ref name=education>Christine Gadrat, ed., ''Une image de l'Orient au XIVe siècle: Les Mirabila descripta de Jordan Catala de Sévérac'', Mémoires et Documents de l'École des Chartes 78 (Paris: École des Chartes, 2005), pp. 43–44.</ref>

==Travels==
Jordan was possibly a disciple of Jerome of Catalonia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.angleeditorial.com/meravelles-descrites-494|title = Meravelles descrites}}</ref> In 1302 Jordan may have accompanied [[Thomas of Tolentino]], via [[Negropont]], to the East; but it is only in 1321 that we definitely discover him in western India, in the company of Thomas and his companions. Ill-luck detained them at [[Thane]] in [[Salsette Island]], near [[Bombay]]; and here Jordan's companions were killed on 8 and 11 April 1321.{{sfn|Beazley|1911}}

Jordan, escaping, worked some time at [[Bharuch]], in [[Gujarat]], near the [[Narmada]] estuary, and at [[Suvali Beach|Suvali]] near [[Surat]]; to his fellow-Dominicans in north Persia he wrote two letters – the first from [[Ghogha|Gogo]] in Gujarat (12 October 1321), the second from [[Thane, India|Thane]] (24 January 1323/4) describing the progress of this new mission. From these letters we learn that Roman attention had already been directed, not only to the Bombay region, but also to the extreme south of the Indian peninsula, especially to Columbum ([[Kollam]]) in later [[Travancore]]; Jordan's words may imply that he had already started a mission there before October 1321.{{sfn|Beazley|1911}}

From Catholic traders Jordan had learnt that [[Ethiopia]] (i.e. Abyssinia and [[Nubia]]) was accessible to Western Europeans; at this very time, as we know from other sources, the earliest Latin missionaries penetrated thither. Finally, the Epistles of Jordan, like the contemporary Secreta of [[Marino Sanuto the Elder|Marino Sanuto]] (1306–1321), urge the Pope to establish a Christian fleet upon the Indian seas.{{sfn|Beazley|1911}}

Jordan, between 1324 and 1328 (if not earlier), probably visited Kollam and selected it as the best centre for his future work; it would also appear that he revisited Europe about 1328, passing through Persia, and perhaps touching at the great Crimean port of [[Sudak]]. He was appointed a bishop in 1328 and nominated by [[Pope John XXII]] in his bull ''Venerabili Fratri Jordano'' to the see of Columbum ([[Diocese of Quilon|Quilon]]) on 21 August 1329.{{sfn|Beazley|1911}} This diocese was the first Roman Catholic one in the whole of the [[Indies]], with jurisdiction over modern India, [[Pakistan]], [[Afghanistan]], [[Bangladesh]], [[Burma]], and [[Sri Lanka]]. It was created on 9 August by the decree ''Romanus Pontifix''.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}} Together with the new bishop of [[Samarkand]], [[Thomas of Mancasola]], Jordan was commissioned to take the [[pallium]] to [[John de Cora]], archbishop of Sultaniyah in Persia, within whose province Kollam was reckoned; he was also commended to the Christians of south India, both east and west of [[Cape Comorin]], by Pope John.{{sfn|Beazley|1911}}

==''Mirabilia descripta''==
[[File:Mirabilia Descripta, English edition 1863.jpg|thumb|''Mirabilia descripta'', English edition 1863]]
Either before going out to [[Malabar (Northern Kerala)|Malabar]] as bishop, or during a later visit to the west, Jordan probably wrote his ''Mirabilia'', which from internal evidence can only be fixed within the period 1329–1338; in this work he furnished the best account of Indian regions, products, climate, manners, customs, fauna and flora given by any European in the Middle Ages — superior even to [[Marco Polo]]'s.{{sfn|Beazley|1911}}

In his triple division of the Indies, India Major comprises the shorelands from Malabar to [[Cochin China]]; while India Minor stretches from [[History of Sindh|Sind]] (or perhaps from [[Balochistan (region)|Baluchistan]]) to Malabar; and India Tertia (evidently dominated by African conceptions in his mind) includes a vast undefined coast-region west of Baluchistan, reaching into the neighborhood of, but not including, Ethiopia and [[Prester John]]'s domain.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} Jordan's ''Mirabilia'' contains the earliest clear African identification of Prester John, and what is perhaps the first notice of the [[Black Sea]] under that name; it refers to the author's residence in India Major and especially at Kollam, as well as to his travels in [[Armenia]], north-west Persia, the [[Lake Van]] region, and [[Chaldaea]]; and it supplies excellent descriptions of [[Parsee]] doctrines and burial customs, of Hindu ox-worship, idol-ritual, and sutee, and of Indian fruits, birds, animals and insects. After 8 April 1330 we have no more knowledge of Bishop Jordan.{{sfn|Beazley|1911}}

{{clear}}

===Extracts of ''Mirabilia descripta''===
<gallery widths="300px" heights="150px" perrow="4">
File:Jordanus, on Saint-Thomas Chrsitians in India (Mirabilia Descripta, 1329–1338).jpg|Catholic critical account of [[Saint Thomas Christians]] in India, written by Jordanus in 1329–1338 in ''Mirabilia descripta''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jordanus |first1=Catalani |last2=Yule |first2=Henry |last3=Parr |first3=Charles McKew donor |last4=Parr |first4=Ruth |title=Mirabilia descripta : the wonders of the East |date=1863 |publisher=London : Printed for the Hakluyt Society |page=23, paragraph 31 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_wQUVAAAAQAAJ/page/n52/mode/1up}}</ref>
File:Extracts from Jordanus, Mirabilia descripta (14th century, detail).jpg|Original facsimile extracts from the unique manuscript of Jordanus, ''Mirabilia descripta'' (1329–1338)
File:Jordanus, on the destructions of the Turkish Saracens in India (Mirabilia Descripta, 1329–1338).jpg|Jordanus, on the destructions of the "[[Delhi Sultanate|Turkish Saracens]]" in India (''Mirabilia descripta'', written in 1329–1338).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jordanus |first1=Catalani |last2=Yule |first2=Henry |last3=Parr |first3=Charles McKew donor |last4=Parr |first4=Ruth |title=Mirabilia descripta : the wonders of the East |date=1863 |publisher=London : Printed for the Hakluyt Society |page=23 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_wQUVAAAAQAAJ/page/n52/mode/1up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Juncu |first1=Meera |title=India in the Italian Renaissance: Visions of a Contemporary Pagan World 1300-1600 |date=30 July 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-44768-9 |page=85 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3NYkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT85 |language=en}}</ref>
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Chronology of European exploration of Asia]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

===Primary sources===
According to {{harvtxt|Beazley|1911}}, "[o]f Jordan's Epistles there is only one MS., viz. Paris, National Library, 5006 Lat., fol. 182, r. and v.; of the Mirabilia also one MS. only, viz. London, British Library," [http://searcharchives.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=detailsTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=IAMS032-002096154&indx=1&recIds=IAMS032-002096154&recIdxs=0&elementId=0&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=&dscnt=1&frbg=&scp.scps=scope%3A%28BL%29&tab=local&dstmp=1412156288586&srt=rank&mode=Basic&dum=true&vl%28freeText0%29=19513&vid=IAMS_VU2 Additional MSS., 19513, fols. 3, r.f 2 r] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314183816/https://searcharchives.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=detailsTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=IAMS032-002096154&indx=1&recIds=IAMS032-002096154&recIdxs=0&elementId=0&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=&dscnt=1&frbg=&scp.scps=scope%3A%28BL%29&tab=local&dstmp=1412156288586&srt=rank&mode=Basic&dum=true&vl%28freeText0%29=19513&vid=IAMS_VU2 |date=14 March 2022 }}.

*The text of the Epistles is in [[Jacques Quétif|Quétif]]–[[Jacques Échard|Échard]], ''Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum'', i. 549–550 (Epistle I.)
*and in [[Luke Wadding]], ''Annales minorum'', vi. 359–361 (Epistle II.)
*Latin text of the ''Mirabilia'': {{cite book | year=1839 | chapter=Description des Merveilles d'une partie de l'Asie par le P. Jordan ou Jourdain Catalani | title=Recueil de Voyages et de Mémoires par la Société Géographie Volume 4 | publisher=Arthus-Bertrand | place=Paris | pages=1–68 | language=French, Latin | chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/recueildevoyages04soci#page/n6/mode/1up }}
*English translation of the ''Mirabilia'' as [https://archive.org/details/mirabiliadescrip00jord ''The Wonders of the East''].
*The Papal letters referring to Jordan are in [[Odericus Raynaldus]], ''[[Annales ecclesiastici]]'', 1330, f lv. and lvii (8 April; 14 February).

===Secondary sources===
*{{cite book | last=Yule | first=Henry, ed. and trans. | author-link=Henry Yule | year=1863 |title=Mirabilia descripta: the wonders of the East | publisher=Hakuyt Society | place=London | url=https://archive.org/stream/mirabiliadescrip00jord#page/n19/mode/2up }}
*{{cite book | last=Yule | first=Henry | year=1913 | chapter=Additional notes and corrections to the translation of the ''Mirabilia'' of Friar Jordanus | title=Cathay and the way thither: being a collection of medieval notices of China (Volume 3) | publisher=Hakluyt Society | place=London | pages=39–44 | chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/cathaywaythither03yule#page/39/mode/1up}}
* Henry Yule's ''Cathay'', giving a version of the Epistles, with a commentary, &c. (Hakluyt Society, 1866) pp. 184–185, 192–196, 225–230
*{{cite journal | last=Kurdian | first=H. | year=1937 | title=A correction to 'Mirabilia descripta' (The Wonders of the East). By Friar Jordanus ''circa'' 1330 | journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society | volume=69 | issue=3 | pages=480–481 | doi=10.1017/S0035869X00086032 | s2cid=163202845 }}
*F. Kunstmann, ''Die Mission in Meliapor und Tana und die Mission in Columbo'' in the Historisch-politische Blätter of Phillips and Görres, xxxvii. 2538, 135–152 (Munich, 1856), &c.
*{{cite book | last=Beazley | first=C.R.| author-link=C. R. Beazley | year=1906 | title=The Dawn of Modern Geography (Volume 3) | publisher=Clarendon Press | place=Oxford | pages=215–235 | url=https://archive.org/stream/dawnofmoderngeog03beazuoft#page/215/mode/1up }}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Jordanus|volume=15|last= Beazley |first= Charles Raymond |author-link= Charles Raymond Beazley|page=512}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:14th-century explorers]]
[[Category:14th-century Roman Catholic bishops in India]]
[[Category:Spanish explorers]]
[[Category:Spanish Dominicans]]
[[Category:French explorers]]
[[Category:French Dominicans]]
[[Category:1321 births]]
[[Category:1330 deaths]]
[[Category:Occitan-speaking people]]
[[Category:14th-century French people]]
[[Category:Explorers of South Asia]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in India]]

Jordan Catala - Revision history

NoraBillings at 21:54, 19 January 2026