Many of our tastes were similar; we had the
same desire to seek the truth, the same earnest wish to be exact, perhaps
the same sense of humour, and, what is necessary when writing on Marco
Polo, certainly the same love for Venice and its history. Not only am I,
with the late CHARLES SCHEFER, the founder and the editor of the Recueil
de Voyages et de Documents pour servir a l'Histoire de la Geographie
depuis le XIII'e jusqu'a la fin du XVI'e siecle, but I am also the
successor, at the Ecole des langues Orientales Vivantes, of G. PAUTHIER,
whose book on the Venetian Traveller is still valuable, so the mantle of
the last two editors fell upon my shoulders.
I therefore, gladly and thankfully, accepted Miss AMY FRANCIS YULE'S kind
proposal to undertake the editorship of the third edition of the Book of
Ser Marco Polo, and I wish to express here my gratitude to her for the
great honour she has thus done me.[1]
Unfortunately for his successor, Sir Henry Yule, evidently trusting to his
own good memory, left but few notes.
