Cathay
Cathay , also Cataya , Cathaia , Kathai or Kitai and similar, is the old name used by Marco Polo in his travelogue " Il Milione " for China , especially northern China. The name is derived from the kingdom of the Kitan . The now accepted theory that Marco Polos Cathay and China refer to the same country was developed by Matteo Ricci in 1601.
At the end of the 15th century, Matteo Boiardo used the term in his verse epic Orlando innamorato as an indication of the origin of the pagan princess Angelica and thus introduced it into the romantic literature of his time. With the continuation of this work, Ludovico Ariosto's Rasendem Roland , he became an integral part of European romance poetry.
Today it is used as part of the name of different companies best known is probably Cathay Pacific , as well as a watch brand and the series edition cathay the project Publishing bear the name. The word Kitai (or Kytaj or Kitajska ) as a common name for China is still used in many languages of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union , such as Bulgarian , Kazakh (Қытай) , Ossetian and Chuvash , Russian ( Китай ), Slovenian (Kitajska) , Ukrainian and Belarusian (Кітай) .
Individual evidence
- ^ Theodore Nicholas Foss, Donald F. Lach: Images of Asia and Asians in European Fiction, 1500-1800. In: Hongqi Li, Thomas HC Lee (Eds.): China and Europe: Images and Influences in Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries. The Chinese University Press, Hong Kong 1991, ISBN 962-201-465-8 , p. 167 ( limited preview in Google book search).