The first mention of the name spelled as “Georgia” is in Italian on the ''mappa mundi'' of Pietro Vesconte dated AD 1320. At the early stage of its appearance in the Latin world, it was not always written in the same transliteration, and the first consonant was being spelt with ''J'' as "Jorgia". "Georgia" probably stems from the Persian designation of the Georgians – ''gurğān'', in the 11th and 12th centuries adapted via Syriac ''gurz-ān''/''gurz-iyān'' and Arabic ''ĵurĵan''/''ĵurzan''. Lore-based theories were given by the traveller Jacques de Vitry, who explained the name's origin by the popularity of St. George amongst Georgians, while traveller Jean Chardin thought that "Georgia" came from Greek γεωργός ("tiller of the land"). As Prof. Alexander Mikaberidze adds, these century-old explanations for the word ''Georgia/Georgians'' are rejected by the scholarly community, who point to the Persian word ''gurğ/gurğān'' ("wolf") as the root of the word. Starting with the Persian word ''gurğ/gurğān'', the word was later adopted in numerous other languages, including Slavic and West European languages. This term itself might have been established through the ancient Iranian appellation of the near-Caspian region, which was referred to as ''Gorgan'' ("land of the wolves").