The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 36

(5). G.T. 124 (II. 36). Adonc treuve ... une Provence _qe est encore_ de le confin dou Mangi.

Crusca, 162-3 .. L' uomo truova una Provincia _ch' e chiamata ancora_ delle confine de' Mangi.

G.L. 396 .. Invenit unam Provinciam _quae vocatur Anchota_ de confinibus Mangi.

(6). G.T. 146 (II. 119.) Les dames portent as jambes et es braces, braciaus d'or et d'arjent de grandisme vailance.

Crusca, 189 .. Le donne _portano alle braccia e alle gambe bracciali d'oro_ e d'ariento di gran valuta.

G.L. 411 .. Dominae eorum _portant ad brachia et ad gambas brazalia de auro_ et de argento magni valoris.

B. _Pa.s.sages showing additionally the errors, or other peculiarities of a translation from a French original, common to the Italian and the Latin._

(7). G.T. 32 (I. 97.) Est celle plaingne mout _chaue_ (chaude).

Crusca, 35 .. Questo piano e molto _cavo_.

G.L. 322 .. Ista planities est multum _cava_.

(8). G.T. 36 (I. 110). Avent por ce que l'eive hi est _amer_.

Crusca, 40 .. E questo e _per lo mare_ che vi viene.

G.L. 324 .. Istud est _propter mare_ quod est ibi.

(9). G.T. 8 (I. 50.) Un roi qi est apeles par tout tens Davit Melic, que veut a dir _en fransois_ Davit Roi.

Crusca, 20 .. Uno re il quale si chiama _sempre_ David Melic, ci e a dire _in francesco_ David Re.

G.L. 312 .. Rex qui _semper_ vocatur David Mellic, quod sonat _in gallico_ David Rex.

These pa.s.sages, and many more that might be quoted, seem to me to demonstrate (1) that the Latin and the Crusca have had a common original, and (2) that this original was an Italian version from the French.

[2] Thus the _Pucci_ MS. at Florence, in the pa.s.sage regarding the Golden King (vol. ii. p. 17) which begins in G. T. "_Lequel fist faire_ jadis _un rois qe fu apelles le Roi Dor_," renders "_Lo quale fa fare_ Jaddis _uno re_," a mistake which is not in the Crusca nor in the Latin, and seems to imply derivation from the French directly, or by some other channel (_Baldelli Boni_).

[3] In the Prologue (vol. i. p. 34) this cla.s.s of MSS. alone names the King of England.

In the account of the Battle with Nayan (i. p. 337) this cla.s.s alone speaks of the two-stringed instruments which the Tartars played whilst awaiting the signal for battle. But the circ.u.mstance appears elsewhere in the G. T. (p. 250).

In the chapter on _Malabar_ (vol. ii. p. 390), it is said that the s.h.i.+ps which go with cargoes towards Alexandria are not one-tenth of those that go to the further East. This is not in the older French.

In the chapter on _Coilun_ (ii. p. 375), we have a notice of the Columbine ginger so celebrated in the Middle Ages, which is also absent from the older text.

[4] See vol. ii. p. 439. It is, however, remarkable that a like mistake is made about the Persian Gulf (see i. 63, 64). Perhaps Polo _thought_ in Persian, in which the word _darya_ means either _sea_ or a _large river_. The same habit and the ambiguity of the Persian _sher_ led him probably to his confusion of lions and tigers (see i. 397).

[5] Such are Pasciai-_Dir_ and _Ariora_ Kesciemur (i. p. 98.)

[6] Thus the MSS. of this type have elected the erroneous readings _Bolgara, Cogatra, Chiato, Cabanant_, etc., instead of the correcter _Bolgana, Cocacin, Quiacatu, Cobinan_, where the G. T. presents both (supra, p. 86). They read _Esanar_ for the correct _Etzina_; _Chascun_ for _Casvin_; _Achalet_ for _Acbalec_; _Sardansu_ for _Sindafu_, _Kayteu, Kayton, Sarcon_ for _Zaiton_ or _Caiton_; _Soucat_ for _Locac_; _Falec_ for _Ferlec_, and so on, the worse instead of the better. They make the _Mer Occeane_ into _Mer Occident_; the wild a.s.ses (_asnes_) of the Kerman Desert into wild geese (_oes_); the _escoillez_ of Bengal (ii. p. 115) into _escoliers_; the _giraffes_ of Africa into _girofles_, or cloves, etc., etc.

[7] There are about five-and-thirty such pa.s.sages altogether.

[8] The Bern MS. I have satisfied myself is an actual _copy_ of the Paris MS. C.

The Oxford MS. closely resembles both, but I have not made the comparison minutely enough to say if it is an exact copy of either.

[9] The following comparison will also show that these two Latin versions have probably had a common source, such as is here suggested.

At the end of the Prologue the Geographic Text reads simply:--

"Or puis que je voz ai contez tot le fat dou prolegue ensi con voz aves o, adonc (commencerai) le Livre."

Whilst the Geographic Latin has:--

"_Postquam recitavimus et diximus facta et condictiones morum, itinerum_ et ea quae n.o.bis contigerunt per vias, _incipiemus dicere ea quae vidimus. Et primo dicemus de Minore Hermenia_."

And Pipino:--

"_Narratione facta nostri itineris, nunc ad ea narranda quae vidimus accedamus. Primo autem Armeniam Minorem describemus breviter_."

[10] Friar Francesco Pipino of Bologna, a Dominican, is known also as the author of a lengthy chronicle from the time of the Frank Kings down to 1314; of a Latin Translation of the French History of the Conquest of the Holy Land, by Bernard the Treasurer; and of a short Itinerary of a Pilgrimage to Palestine in 1320. Extracts from the Chronicle, and the version of Bernard, are printed in Muratori's Collection. As Pipino states himself to have executed the translation of Polo by order of his Superiors, it is probable that the task was set him at a general chapter of the order which was held at Bologna in 1315. (See _Muratori_, IX. 583; and _Quetif, Script. Ord. Praed._ I. 539). We do not know why Ramusio a.s.signed the translation specifically to 1320, but he may have had grounds.

[11] See _Bianconi_, 1st Mem. 29 seqq.

[12] C. d.i.c.kens somewhere narrates the history of the equivalents for a sovereign as changed and rechanged at every frontier on a continental tour. The final equivalent received at Dover on his return was some 12 or 13 s.h.i.+llings; a fair parallel to the comparative value of the first and last copies in the circle of translation.

[13] The Ramusios were a family of note in literature for several generations. Paolo, the father of Gian Battista, came originally from Rimini to Venice in 1458, and had a great repute as a jurist, besides being a litterateur of some eminence, as was also his younger brother Girolamo. G. B. Ramusio was born at Treviso in 1485, and early entered the public service. In 1533 he became one of the Secretaries of the Council of X. He was especially devoted to geographical studies, and had a school for such studies in his house. He retired eventually from public duties, and lived at Villa Ramusia, near Padua. He died in the latter city, 10th July, 1557, but was buried at Venice in the Church of S. Maria dell' Orto. There was a portrait of him by Paul Veronese in the Hall of the Great Council, but it perished in the fire of 1577; and that which is now seen in the Sala dello Scudo is, like the companion portrait of Marco Polo, imaginary. Paolo Ramusio, his son, was the author of the well-known History of the Capture of Constantinople. (_Cicogna_, II. 310 seqq.)

[14] The old French texts were unknown in Marsden's time. Hence this question did not present itself to him.

[15] _w.a.n.gcheu_ in the Chinese Annals; _Vanchu_ in Ramusio. I a.s.sume that Polo's _Vanchu_ was p.r.o.nounced as in English; for in Venetian the _ch_ very often has that sound. But I confess that I can adduce no other instance in Ramusio where I suppose it to have this sound, except in the initial sound of _Chinchitalas_ and twice in _Choiach_ (see II.

364).

Professor Bianconi, who has treated the questions connected with the Texts of Polo with honest enthusiasm and laborious detail, will admit nothing genuine in the Ramusian interpolations beyond the preservation of some _oral traditions_ of Polo's supplementary recollections. But such a theory is out of the question in face of a chapter like that on Ahmad.

[16] Old Purchas appears to have greatly relished Ramusio's comparative lucidity: "I found (says he) this Booke translated by Master Hakluyt out of the Latine (i.e. among Hakluyt's MS. collections). But where the blind leade the blind both fall: as here the corrupt _Latine_ could not but yeeld a corruption of truth in _English_. Ramusio, Secretarie to the _Decemviri_ in _Venice_, found a better Copie and published the same, whence you have the worke in manner new: so renewed, that I have found the Proverbe true, that it is better to pull downe an old house and to build it anew, then to repaire it; as I also should have done, had I knowne that which in the event I found.

The _Latine_ is Latten, compared to _Ramusio's_ Gold. And hee which hath the _Latine_ hath but _Marco Polo's_ carka.s.se or not so much, but a few bones, yea, sometimes stones rather then bones; things divers, averse, adverse, perverted in manner, disjoynted in manner, beyond beliefe. I have seene some Authors maymed, but never any so mangled and so mingled, so present and so absent, as this vulgar _Latine_ of _Marco Polo_; not so like himselfe, as the Three _Polo's_ were at their returne to _Venice_, where none knew them.... Much are wee beholden to _Ramusio_, for restoring this _Pole_ and Load-starre of _Asia_, out of that mirie poole or puddle in which he lay drouned."

(III. p. 65.)

[17] Of these difficulties the following are some of the more prominent:--

1. The mention of the death of Kublai (see note 7, p. 38 of this volume), whilst throughout the book Polo speaks of Kublai as if still reigning.

2. Mr. Hugh Murray objects that whilst in the old texts Polo appears to look on Kublai with reverence as a faultless Prince, in the Ramusian we find pa.s.sages of an opposite tendency, as in the chapter about Ahmad.

3. The same editor points to the manner in which one of the Ramusian additions represents the traveller to have visited the Palace of the Chinese Kings at Kinsay, which he conceives to be inconsistent with Marco's position as an official of the Mongol Government. (See vol.

ii. p. 208.)

If we could conceive the Ramusian additions to have been originally notes written by old Maffeo Polo on his nephew's book, this hypothesis would remove almost all difficulty.

One pa.s.sage in Ramusio seems to bear a reference to the date at which these interpolated notes were amalgamated with the original. In the chapter on Samarkand (i. p. 191) the conversion of the Prince Chagatai is said in the old texts to have occurred "not a great while ago"

(_il ne a encore grament de tens_). But in Ramusio the supposed event is fixed at "one hundred and twenty-five years since." This number could not have been uttered with reference to 1298, the year of the dictation at Genoa, nor to any year of Polo's own life. Hence it is probable that the original note contained a date or definite term which was altered by the compiler to suit the date of his own compilation, some time in the 14th century.]

[18] In the first edition of Ramusio the preface contained the following pa.s.sage, which is omitted from the succeeding editions; but as even the first edition was issued after Ramusio's own death, I do not see that any stress can be laid on this:

"A copy of the Book of Marco Polo, as it was originally written in Latin, marvellously old, and perhaps directly copied from the original as it came from M. Marco's own hand, has been often consulted by me and compared with that which we now publish, having been lent me by a n.o.bleman of this city, belonging to the Ca' Ghisi."

[19] For a moment I thought I had been lucky enough to light on a part of the missing original of Ramusio in the Barberini Library at Rome.

A fragment of a Venetian version in that library (No. 56 in our list of MSS.) bore on the fly-leaf the t.i.tle "_Alcuni primi capi del Libro di S. Marco Polo, copiati dall esemplare manoscritto di PAOLO RANNUSIO._" But it proved to be of no importance. One brief pa.s.sage of those which have been thought peculiar to Ramusio; viz., the reference to the Martyrdom of St. Blaize at Sebaste (see p. 43 of this volume), is found also in the Geographic Latin.

It was pointed out by Lazari, that another pa.s.sage (vol. i. p. 60) of those otherwise peculiar to Ramusio, is found in a somewhat abridged Latin version in a MS. which belonged to the late eminent antiquary Emanuel Cicogna. (See List in Appendix F, No. 35.) This fact induced me when at Venice in 1870 to examine the MS. throughout, and, though I could give little time to it, the result was very curious.

I find that this MS. contains, not one only, but at least _seven_ of the pa.s.sages otherwise peculiar to Ramusio, and must have been one of the elements that went to the formation of his text. Yet of his more important interpolations, such as the chapter on Ahmad's oppressions and the additional matter on the City of Kinsay, there is no indication. The seven pa.s.sages alluded to are as follows; the words corresponding to Ramusian peculiarities are in italics, the references are to my own volumes.