Nine; and my mother brought it into our
Family of Del Riccio, and it belongs to me Pier del Riccio and to my
Brother; 1452."
As far as I can learn, the age which this note implies is considered to be
supported by the character of the MS. itself.[3] If it be accepted, the
latter is a performance going back to within eleven years at most of the
first dictation of the Travels. At first sight, therefore, this would
rather argue that the original had been written in pure Tuscan. But when
Baldelli came to prepare it for the press he found manifest indications of
its being a Translation from the French. Some of these he has noted;
others have followed up the same line of comparison. We give some detailed
examples in a note.[4]
[Sidenote: Old French Text published by the Societe de Geographie.]
52. The French Text that we have been quoting, published by the
Geographical Society of Paris in 1824, affords on the other hand the
strongest corresponding proof that it is an original and not a
Translation. Rude as is the language of the manuscript (Fr. 1116, formerly
No. 7367, of Paris Library), it is, in the correctness of the proper
names, and the intelligible exhibition of the itineraries, much superior
to any form of the Work previously published.
