But besides these maps, he gives, in a tabular form of
parallel columns, the reigning sovereigns in Europe and Asia connected
with his historical retrospect, just on the plan presented in Sir
Harris Nicolas's Chronology of History.
[11] I do not see that al-Biruni deserves the credit in this respect
assigned to him by Professor Peschel, so far as one can judge from the
data given by Sprenger (Peschel, p. 128; Post und Reise-Routen,
81-82.)
[12] For example, Delli, which Polo does not name; Diogil (Deogir); on
the Coromandel coast Setemelti, which I take to be a clerical error
for Sette-Templi, the Seven Pagodas; round the Gulf of Cambay we
have Cambetum (Kambayat), Cocintaya (Kokan-Tana, see vol. ii. p.
396), Goga, Baroche, Neruala (Anharwala), and to the north Moltan.
Below Multan are Hocibelch and Bargelidoa, two puzzles. The former
is, I think, Uch-baligh, showing that part of the information was
from Perso-Mongol sources.
[13] I see it stated by competent authority that Romman is often applied
to any prose composition in a Romance language.
In or about 1426, Prince Pedro of Portugal, the elder brother of the
illustrious Prince Henry, being on a visit to Venice, was presented by
the Signory with a copy of Marco Polo's book, together with a map
already alluded to. (Major's P. Henry, pp. 61, 62.)
[14] This is partly due also to Fra Mauro's reversion to the fancy of the
circular disk limiting the inhabited portion of the earth.
[15] An early graphic instance of this is Ruysch's famous map (1508). The
following extract of a work printed as late as 1533 is an example of
the like confusion in verbal description: "The Territories which are
beyond the limits of Ptolemy's Tables have not yet been described on
certain authority. Behind the Sinae and the Seres, and beyond 180 deg. of
East Longitude, many countries were discovered by one [quendam]
Marco Polo a Venetian and others, and the sea-coasts of those
countries have now recently again been explored by Columbus the
Genoese and Amerigo Vespucci in navigating the Western Ocean.... To
this part (of Asia) belong the territory called that of the
Bachalaos [or Codfish, Newfoundland], Florida, the Desert of
Lop, Tangut, Cathay, the realm of Mexico (wherein is the vast
city of Temistitan, built in the middle of a great lake, but which
the older travellers styled QUINSAY), besides Paria, Uraba, and
the countries of the Canibals." (Joannis Schoneri Carolostadtii
Opusculum Geogr., quoted by Humboldt, Examen, V. 171, 172.)
[16] In Robert Parke's Dedication of his Translation of Mendoza's, London,
1st of January, 1589, he identifies China and Japan with the regions
of which Paulus Venetus and Sir John Mandeuill "wrote long agoe."
- MS. Note by Yule.
[17] "Totius Europae et Asiae Tabula Geographica, Auctore Thoma D.
Aucupario. Edita Argentorati, MDXXII." Copied in Witsen.
[18] This strange association of Balor (i.e., Bolor, that name of so
many odd vicissitudes, see pp. 178-179 infra) with the shut-up
Israelites must be traced to a passage which Athanasius Kircher quotes
from R. Abraham Pizol (qu. Peritsol?): "Regnum, inquit, Belor
magnum et excelsum nimis, juxta omnes illos qui scripserunt
Historicos. Sunt in eo Judaei plurimi inclusi, et illud in latere
Orientali et Boreali," etc. (China Illustrata, p. 49.)
[19] Vol. ii. p. 1.
[20] A short Account of Libraries of Italy, by the Hon. R. Curzon
(the late Lord de la Zouche); in Bibliog. and Hist. Miscellanies;
Philobiblon Society, vol. i, 1854, pp. 6. seqq.
[21] P. del Natali was Bishop of Equilio, a city of the Venetian Lagoons,
in the latter part of the 14th century. (See Ughelli, Italia Sacra,
X. 87.) There is no ground whatever for connecting him with these
inventions. The story of the glass types appears to rest entirely and
solely on one obscure passage of Sansovino, who says that under the
Doge Marco Corner (1365-1367): "certe Natale Veneto lascio un libro
della materie delle forme da giustar intorno alle lettere, ed il modo
di formarle di vetro." There is absolutely nothing more. Some kind of
stencilling seems indicated.
[22] History of Printing in China and Europe, in Philobiblon, vol. vi.
p. 23.
[23] See Appendix L. in First Edition.
[24] Ramusio himself appears to have been entirely unconscious of it,
vide supra, p. 3
[25] This subject has been fully treated in Cathay and the Way Thither.
XIV. EXPLANATIONS REGARDING THE BASIS ADOPTED FOR THE PRESENT TRANSLATION.
89. It remains to say a few words regarding the basis adopted for our
English version of the Traveller's record.
[Sidenote: Text followed by Marsden and by Pauthier.]
Ramusio's recension was that which Marsden selected for translation. But
at the date of his most meritorious publication nothing was known of the
real literary history of Polo's Book, and no one was aware of the peculiar
value and originality of the French manuscript texts, nor had Marsden seen
any of them. A translation from one of those texts is a translation at
first hand; a translation from Ramusio's Italian is, as far as I can
judge, the translation of a translated compilation from two or more
translations, and therefore, whatever be the merits of its matter,
inevitably carries us far away from the spirit and style of the original
narrator. M. Pauthier, I think, did well in adopting for the text of his
edition the MSS. which I have classed as of the second Type, the more as
there had hitherto been no publication from those texts. But editing a
text in the original language, and translating, are tasks substantially
different in their demands.
