"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
nobleman 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 title "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 passage 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 passage (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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 317 of 1256
Words from 86388 to 86638
of 342071
