Nor Was Polo's Case An Exceptional One Even Among Writers On The East Who
Were Not Frenchmen.
Maundevile himself tells us that he put his book first
"out of Latyn into Frensche," and then out of French into English.[16] The
History of the East which the Armenian Prince and Monk Hayton dictated to
Nicolas Faulcon at Poictiers in 1307 was taken down in French.
There are
many other instances of the employment of French by foreign, and
especially by Italian authors of that age. The Latin chronicle of the
Benedictine Amato of Monte Cassino was translated into French early in the
13th century by another monk of the same abbey, at the particular desire
of the Count of Militree (or Malta), "Pour ce qu'il set lire et entendre
fransoize et s'en delitte."[17] Martino da Canale, a countryman and
contemporary of Polo's, during the absence of the latter in the East wrote
a Chronicle of Venice in the same language, as a reason for which he
alleges its general popularity.[18] The like does the most notable example
of all, Brunetto Latini, Dante's master, who wrote in French his
encyclopaedic and once highly popular work Li Tresor.[19] Other examples
might be given, but in fact such illustration is superfluous when we
consider that Rusticiano himself was a compiler of French Romances.
But why the language of the Book as we see it in the Geographic Text
should be so much more rude, inaccurate, and Italianized than that of
Rusticiano's other writings, is a question to which I can suggest no reply
quite satisfactory to myself.
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