Andrew of Savignone (fl. 1330-1346)

by Sally K. Church (see Chinese translation)

Also known as Andalò da Savignone and Andrew the Frank, Andrew of Savignone was a Genoese merchant and diplomat. Unfortunately, no memoirs, notes, travel accounts or company accounting registers survive to document his life. He therefore remains a rather vague figure in the history of European travellers to China in the Mongol period. Research by a few persistent and dedicated scholars has uncovered some important details which help us pinpoint certain events and piece together portions of his past.

He was descended from a family of public officials linked to the bishop of Tortona -- the Visconti di Savignone – who had, over time, transformed their office into a territorial lordship, based mainly on the income deriving from the commercial traffic that crossed the district of Savignone in Italy.

We do not know the date of his birth, but it must have been in the final decade of the 13th century. In 1317 Andalò and his brother Benedetto, bought parts some residential property in Genoa, one of which was rather large. Andalò also inherited part of the estate of his uncle Cristoforo da Savignone, including a large palace with a substantial amount of land in the Genoan suburbs.

He made his first trip to China around 1330, travelling in the company of the silk merchant Leone Vegia. During his journey Andalò retrieved the goods of a Chiavari merchant named Antonio Sarmore, who had died in Beijing. He returned to Genoa in 1333 and acted as executor for Sarmore’s estate.

In 1334 Andalò left again for China where, in July 1336, he was asked by the Grand Khan Toghan Timūr to take a letter to Pope Benedict XII at Avignon. The letter concerned some Christians of Alan origin. The Khan also asked Andalò to pass on a request for the Pope to send a missionary to replace Giovanni di Montecorvino, who had died there eight years earlier.

Andalò was in Genoa in December 1337. He visited Venice for a short time and returned to Genoa in time to embark from Genoa on a galley of the spring convoy that sailed for Romania. In Naples he took Giovanni Marignolli on board; the pope had appointed Marignolli to represent him in Beijing after the death of John of Montecorvino. They arrived in Caffa (present-day Feodosija, Crimea) around June 1339. It is possible that Andalò escorted the new archbishop all the way to Beijing, but this is not known for certain. He had to deliver some letters addressed by the Pope to various Mongol leaders.

After returning to Genoa he continued to occupy prominent positions in the community and to conduct mercantile affairs in high volume. From 1343, his nephew Viscount of Savignone (son of Benedetto) was associated with the family businesses. The primary sources locate him in Genoa in February 1345, and the following year he was registered as a merchant there. His social status was still on the rise in the twenty years from 1354 to 1374 and perhaps beyond. He died some time between 1374 and 1391. A grand nephew of Andalò, Arghun da Savignone, was named after the Il-Khan Arghun of Persia.

Roberto Sabatino Lopez expresses it in a nutshell: “Andalò di Savignone, resided in China and, in 1338, was put in charge of a diplomatic mission by the Great Khan. Unfortunately, he left no written record of his travels.” He also says if Andalò had wanted to, “he could have left us memories of the dissolution of the Mongolic monarchy in China just as interesting as those of Marco Polo on its apogee”. One reason why he did not, Lopez conjectures, is that “he was a Genoese of few words”, i.e. he tended, like Genoese merchants, to keep the details of his business and personal affairs to himself.

Although we are limited in what we can say about the life and activities of Andalò da Savignone, we know that he had a fairly long life, that he travelled extensively, and that he combined mercantile activity with the diplomatic assignments that were occasionally entrusted to him by both the Great Khan of China and the Pope in Avignon.