End-October Update

I am through with the second leg of my FutureLearn course called "Radical Spirituality: The Early History of the Quakers". This is my third history course. Though this learning highway is not designed for professionals it transmits professional info and enables interesting discussions. I am not contented with writing my personal response and not always I have something ready. However, while looking through other replies, I can come up with an original approach. 

Before that, I finished a course, Archaeology of Portus: Exploring the Lost Harbor of Ancient Rome. These tracks are not necessarily linked to my own research but they give me an outlook of the work of historians, a glimpse of a bunch of exact sciences borrowed to pinpoint certain issues, and a chance to confront with the mainstream theories. 

I have reread the account of William of Rubruck and picked up a slew of citations which I need to lace together to finish up a draft of a current chapter. This will be chapter 2 in the last unit of my history book, The Enchanting Encounter with the East. The unit is devoted to the experience of western legates and missionaries sent to the Far East to spread the message of Roman Catholism and to spy the activities of the Mongols. The research is in full swing. My full list includes 14 names but can be cut down to 9 or even less. My next author will be John of Montecorvino, the head of the first Catholic mission to China.