Yangzhou, 1342
Caterina Vilioni's Passport to the Afterlife
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11005377 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Krisztina Ilko (0009-0005-4765-2246, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Pages | 3-38 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0080-4401 • E-ISSN: 1474-0648 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0080440124000136 |
| OpenAlex | W4403105756 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 30 |
The tombstone of an Italian woman, Caterina Vilioni, in Yangzhou (1342) is a rare and important testimony to Christianity in Yuan China. By exploring the visual language and the multicultural geopolitical context of Caterina's funerary monument, this article sheds light on the dynamic processes behind how cultural and religious barriers were negotiated in the premodern Eurasian world. Despite the increasing scholarly interest in the European import of Asian luxury merchandise along the Silk Roads, movement of objects, persons, and ideas the other way around from Europe to Asia is much less explored. Moreover, the expansion of European networks towards the east was written from the perspective of men: friars, diplomats and merchants. Yet, the Yangzhou tombstone directs attention to the overlooked presence of non-elite Christian women in the cosmopolitan port cities of south-east China well before the era of modern global maritime exchange. While previous scholars traced the tombstone to Buddhist and Christian art, I argue that the visual language intentionally projected cultural ambiguity. By comparing it to the Mongol paiza (safe conduct pass), this article proposes that Caterina's burial marker functioned as an ‘otherworldly passport’, which invoked spiritual protection and facilitated the passage between two realms
Afterlife · Art · Literature · Chinese history and philosophy · Early Modern Women Writers · Latin American history and culture
Spatial Dunhuang
From Genova to Yangzhou? Funerary Monuments for Europeans in Yuan China and their Paleographic Analysis
The Virgin Mary and Catholic Identities in Chinese History
The Muslim Merchants of Premodern China
Abraham's Luggage
Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds
Avorio d'ogni ragione
Journey to the East
Mobile Things
Daru[gamma]a and Gerege
Four Frankish gravestones from medieval Ephesus
The Nestorian Documents and Relics in China
The Yangchow Latin Tombstone as a Landmark of Medieval Christianity in China
Fruitful Sites
The Luminous Way to the East
Voyager from Xanadu
Levant Trade in the Middle Ages
Marco Polo Was in China
Assembling the Tropics
Hybridity and Its Discontents
The Postal Roads of the Great Khans in Central Asia under the Mongol-Yuan Empire
Introduction
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |