Dr.
Hildebrand, also, a competent German naturalist, believed in it. But Sir
John Kirk himself says that "what the priests had to show was most
undoubtedly the whalebone of a comparatively small whale."
12. - A SPANISH EDITION OF MARCO POLO.
As we go to press we receive the newly published volume, El Libro de
Marco Polo - Aus dem vermaechtnis des Dr. Hermann Knust nach der Madrider
Handschrift herausgegeben von Dr. R. Stuebe. Leipzig, Dr. Seele & Co.,
1902, 8vo., pp. xxvi.-114. It reproduces the old Spanish text of the
manuscript Z-I-2 of the Escurial Library from a copy made by Senor D. Jose
Rodriguez for the Society of the Spanish Bibliophiles, which, being
unused, was sold by him to Dr. Hermann Knust, who made a careful
comparison of it with the original manuscript. This copy, found among the
papers of Dr. Knust after his death, is now edited by Dr. Stuebe. The
original 14th century MS., written in a good hand on two columns, includes
312 leaves of parchment, and contains several works; among them we note:
1 deg., a Collection entitled Flor de las Ystorias de Oriente (fol.
1-104), made on the advice of Juan Fernandez de Heredia, Grand Master of
the Order of St. John of Jerusalem (1377), of which Marco Polo (fol.
50-104) is a part; 2 deg.
