Transferred from the latter not only all items of
real substance that had been omitted, but also all expressions of special
interest and character, and occasionally a greater fulness of phraseology
where condensation in Pauthier's text seemed to have been carried too far.
And finally I introduced between brackets everything peculiar to
Ramusio's version that seemed to me to have a just claim to be reckoned
authentic, and that could be so introduced without harshness or
mutilation. Many passages from the same source which were of interest in
themselves, but failed to meet one or other of these conditions, have been
given in the notes.[1]
[Sidenote: Mode of rendering proper names.]
91. As regards the reading of proper names and foreign words, in which
there is so much variation in the different MSS. and editions, I have done
my best to select what seemed to be the true reading from the G. T. and
Pauthier's three MSS., only in some rare instances transgressing this
limit.
Where the MSS. in the repetition of a name afforded a choice of forms, I
have selected that which came nearest the real name when known. Thus the
G. T. affords Baldasciain, Badascian, Badasciam, Badausiam, Balasian. I
adopt BADASCIAN, or in English spelling BADASHAN, because it is closest to
the real name Badakhshan.
