![A denier tournois
; inscription reads:
+PHILIPVS*REX / +TVRONVS*CIVI[TATI]S. Denier tournois 1270.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/Denier_tournois_1270.jpg/300px-Denier_tournois_1270.jpg)
+PHILIPVS•REX / +TVRONVS•CIVI[TATI]S.
The tornesel, tornesol, or tornese was a silver coin of Europe in the Late Middle Ages and the early modern era.
The tornesel, tornesol, or tornese was a silver coin of Europe in the Late Middle Ages and the early modern era.
It took its name from the denier tournois, the denier of Tours. Marco Polo referred to the tornesel in recounts of his travels to East Asia when describing the currencies of the Yuan Empire. [1] His descriptions were based on the conversion of 1 bezant = 20 groats = 133⅓ tornesel. [1]
The tornese was a subunit of the Neapolitan, Sicilian, and Two Sicilies ducats.
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in The Travels of Marco Polo, a book that described the then-mysterious culture and inner workings of the Eastern world, including the wealth and great size of the Mongol Empire and China under the Yuan dynasty, giving Europeans their first comprehensive look into China, Persia, India, Japan, and other Asian societies.
Colonel Sir Henry Yule was a Scottish Orientalist and geographer. He published many travel books, including translations of the work of Marco Polo and Mirabilia by the 14th-century Dominican Friar Jordanus. He was also the compiler of a dictionary of Anglo-Indian terms, the Hobson-Jobson, with Arthur Coke Burnell.
The groat is the traditional name of a defunct English and Irish silver coin worth four pence, and also a Scottish coin which was originally worth fourpence, with later issues being valued at eightpence and one shilling.
Lopburi is the capital city of Lopburi Province in Thailand. It is about 150 kilometres (93 mi) northeast of Bangkok. It has a population of 58,000. The town covers the whole tambon Tha Hin and parts of Thale Chup Son of Mueang Lopburi District, a total area of 6.85 km2.
Book of the Marvels of the World, in English commonly called The Travels of Marco Polo, is a 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Italian explorer Marco Polo. It describes Polo's travels through Asia between 1271 and 1295, and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan.
In the Middle Ages, the term bezant was used in Western Europe to describe several gold coins of the east, all derived ultimately from the Roman solidus. The word itself comes from the Greek Byzantion, the ancient name of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
Odoric of Pordenone was a Franciscan friar and missionary explorer from Friuli in northeast Italy. He journeyed through India, Sumatra, Java, and China, where he spent three years in the imperial capital of Khanbaliq. After more than ten years of travel, he returned home and dictated a narrative of his experiences and observations called the Relatio, highlighting various cultural, religious, and social peculiarities he encountered in Asia.
Bolor-Tagh is an old name for the longitudinal range in eastern Pamir Mountains extending from Kunlun Mountains in the south to the east extremity of the Trans-Alay Range in the north. Highest peaks Kongur Tagh (7649 m) and Muztagh Ata. Bolor-Tagh lies entirely in the Xinjiang province of western China. Marco Polo visited the area in 1271 during his travel to China, describing it under the name of ‘Belor’.
The ducat was the main currency of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies between 1816 and 1860. When the Congress of Vienna created the kingdom merging the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily, the ducat became at par a continuation of the Neapolitan ducat and the Sicilian piastra issued prior to 1816, although the Sicilian piastra had been subdivided into 240 grana. In the mainland part of the kingdom, the ducat also replaced the Napoleonic lira.
Panfilo Castaldi was an Italian physician and "master of the art of printing", to whom local tradition attributes the invention of moveable type. He was born in Feltre but spent most of his life working in Milan.
Saveh is a city in the Central District of Saveh County, Markazi province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. It is about 120 km (70 mi) southwest of Tehran.
Manuel Komroff was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, editor and translator. He was born in New York where he began his working life as a journalist. He also spent some time in Russia during the Russian Revolution.
Boswellia frereana is a species of plant native to northern Somalia where the locals call it "Dhidin" or "Maydi" or the king of all frankincense. It is also known as the Yigaar tree and by the common name for all frankincense, Fooh. The eponym of the genus references William Edward Frere, Member of Council at Bombay.
The Anshun Bridge is a bridge in the provincial capital of Chengdu in Sichuan, China. It crosses the Jin River. The covered bridge contains a relatively large restaurant and is a popular eating location in the city.
Henri Cordier was a French linguist, historian, ethnographer, author, editor and Orientalist. He was President of the Société de Géographie in Paris. Cordier was a prominent figure in the development of East Asian and Central Asian scholarship in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century. Though he had little actual knowledge of the Chinese language, Cordier had a particularly strong impact on the development of Chinese scholarship, and was a mentor of the noted French sinologist Édouard Chavannes.
Lochac, Locach or Locat is a country far south of China mentioned by Marco Polo. The name is widely believed to be a variant of Lo-huk 罗斛: the Cantonese name for the southern Thai kingdom of Lopburi, which was a province of the Khmer Empire at the time.
Lamuri, Lamri, or Lambri was a kingdom in northern Sumatra, Indonesia recorded from the 9th century until the early 16th century. The area was inhabited by Hindu population around the seventh century. There is also evidence of Buddhism. The region is also thought to be one of the earliest places of arrival of Islam in the Indonesian archipelago, and in its later period its rulers were Muslims.
Nayan was a prince of the Borjigin royal family of the Mongol Empire. He raised a noteworthy and serious rebellion against Kublai Khan, the Mongolian Khagan. He was a Nestorian Christian. Much of what is known of Nayan was recorded by the Venetian traveller Marco Polo.
Manggala was a prince of the Mongol-led Chinese Yuan dynasty. He was a son of the Yuan founding emperor Kublai Khan.
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