65. Whilst upon this subject of manuscripts of our Author, I will give

some particulars regarding a very curious one, containing a version in the _Irish_ language. [Sidenote: Notice of a curious Irish Version of Polo.] This remarkable document is found in the _Book of Lismore_, belonging to the Duke of Devonshire. That magnificent book, finely written on vellum of the largest size, was discovered in 1814, enclosed in a wooden box, along with a superb crozier, on opening a closed doorway in the castle of Lismore. It contained Lives of the Saints, the (Romance) History of Charlemagne, the History of the Lombards, histories and tales of Irish wars, etc., etc., and among the other matter this version of Marco Polo. A full account of the Book and its mutilations will be found in _O’Curry’s Lectures on the MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History_, p. 196 _seqq._, Dublin, 1861. The _Book of Lismore_ was written about 1460 for Finghin MacCarthy and his wife Catharine Fitzgerald, daughter of Gerald, Eighth Earl of Desmond. The date of the Translation of Polo is not known, but it may be supposed to have been executed about the above date, probably in the Monastery of Lismore (county of Waterford). From the extracts that have been translated for me, it is obvious that the version was made, with an astounding freedom certainly, from Friar Francesco Pipino’s Latin. Both beginning and end are missing. But what remains opens thus; compare it with Friar Pipino’s real prologue as we give it in the Appendix![20] [Irish text] &c. ——“Kings and chieftains of that city. There was then in the city a princely Friar in the habit of St. Francis, named Franciscus, who was versed in many languages. He was brought to the place where those nobles were, and they requested of him to translate the book from the Tartar (!) into the Latin language. ‘It is an abomination to me,’ said he, ‘to devote my mind or labour to works of Idolatry and Irreligion.’ They entreated him again. ‘It shall be done,’ said he; ‘for though it be an irreligious narrative that is related therein, yet the things are miracles of the True God; and every one who hears this much against the Holy Faith shall pray fervently for their conversion. And he who will not pray shall waste the vigour of his body to convert them.’ I am not in dread of this Book of Marcus, for there is no lie in it. My eyes beheld him bringing the relics of the holy Church with him, and he left [his testimony], whilst tasting of death, that it was true. And Marcus was a devout man. What is there in it, then, but that Franciscus translated this Book of Marcus from the Tartar into Latin; and the years of the Lord at that time were fifteen years, two score, two hundred, and one thousand” (1255). It then describes _Armein Bec_ (Little Armenia), _Armein Mor_ (Great Armenia), _Musul_, _Taurisius_, _Persida_, _Camandi_, and so forth. The last chapter is that on _Abaschia_:— “ABASCHIA also is an extensive country, under the government of Seven Kings, four of whom worship the true God, and each of them wears a golden cross on the forehead; and they are valiant in battle, having been brought up fighting against the Gentiles of the other three kings, who are Unbelievers and Idolaters. And the kingdom of ADEN; a Soudan rules over them. “The king of Abaschia once took a notion to make a pilgrimage to the Sepulchre of Jesus. ‘Not at all,’ said his nobles and warriors to him, ‘for we should be afraid lest the infidels through whose territories you would have to pass, should kill you. There is a Holy Bishop with you,’ said they; ‘send him to the Sepulchre of Jesus, and much gold with him’”—— The rest is wanting. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] In the following citations, the Geographic Text (G. T.) is quoted by page from the printed edition (1824); the Latin published in the same volume (G. L.) also by page; the Crusca, as before, from Bartoli’s edition of 1863. References in parentheses are to the present translation:— A. _Passages showing the G. L. to be a translation from the Italian, and derived from the same Italian text as the_ Crusca. Page (1). G.T. 17 (I. 43). Il hi se laborent _le souran tapis_ dou monde. Crusca, 17 .. E quivi si fanno _i sovrani tappeti_ del mondo. G.L. 311 .. Et ibi fiunt _soriani et tapeti_ pulcriores de mundo. (2). G.T. 23 (I. 69). Et adonc le calif mande par tuit les cristiez ... _que en sa tere estoient_. Crusca, 27 .. _Ora mandò_ lo aliffo per tutti gli Cristiani _ch’erano di là_. G.L. 316 .. _Or misit_ califus pro Christianis _qui erant ultra fluvium_ (the last words being clearly a misunderstanding of the Italian _di là_). (3). G.T. 198 (II. 313). Ont _sosimain_ (sesamum) de coi il font le olio. Crusca, 253 .. Hanno _sosimai_ onde fanno l’olio. G.L. 448 .. Habent _turpes manus_ (taking _sosimani_ for _sozze mani_ “Dirty hands”!). (4). Crusca, 52 (I. 158). _Cacciare e uccellare_ v’è lo migliore del mondo. G.L. 332 .. Et est ibi optimum _caciare et ucellare_. (5). G.T. 124 (II. 36). Adonc treuve ... une Provence _qe est encore_ de le confin dou Mangi. Crusca, 162–3 .. L’uomo truova una Provincia _ch’è chiamata ancora_ delle confine de’ Mangi. G.L. 396 .. Invenit unam Provinciam _quae vocatur Anchota_ de confinibus Mangi. (6). G.T. 146 (II. 119). Les dames portent as jambes et es braces, braciaus d’or et d’arjent de grandisme vailance. Crusca, 189 .. Le donne _portano alle braccia e alle gambe bracciali d’oro_ e d’ariento di gran valuta. G.L. 411 .. Dominæ eorum _portant ad brachia et ad gambas brazalia de auro_ et de argento magni valoris. B. _Passages showing additionally the errors, or other peculiarities of a translation from a French original, common to the Italian and the Latin._ (7). G.T. 32 (I. 97). Est celle plaingne mout _chaue_ (chaude). Crusca, 35 .. Questo piano è molto _cavo_. G.L. 322 .. Ista planities est multum _cava_. (8). G.T. 36 (I. 110). Avent por ce que l’eive hi est _amer_. Crusca, 40 .. E questo è _per lo mare_ che vi viene. G.L. 324 .. Istud est _propter mare_ quod est ibi. (9). G.T. 18 (I. 50). Un roi qi est apelés par tout tens Davit Melic, que veut à dir _en fransois_ Davit Roi. Crusca, 20 .. Uno re il quale si chiama _sempre_ David Melic, ciò è a dire _in francesco_ David Re. G.L. 312 .. Rex qui _semper_ vocatur David Mellic, quod sonat _in gallico_ David Rex. These passages, and many more that might be quoted, seem to me to demonstrate (1) that the Latin and the Crusca have had a common original, and (2) that this original was an Italian version from the French. [2] Thus the _Pucci_ MS. at Florence, in the passage regarding the Golden King (vol. ii. p. 17) which begins in G. T. “_Lequel fist faire_ jadis _un rois qe fu apellés le Roi Dor_,” renders “_Lo quale fa fare_ Jaddis _uno re_,” a mistake which is not in the Crusca nor in the Latin, and seems to imply derivation from the French directly, or by some other channel (_Baldelli Boni_). [3] In the Prologue (vol. i. p. 34) this class of MSS. alone names the King of England. In the account of the Battle with Nayan (i. p. 337) this class alone speaks of the two-stringed instruments which the Tartars played whilst awaiting the signal for battle. But the circumstance appears elsewhere in the G. T. (p. 250). In the chapter on _Malabar_ (vol. ii. p. 390), it is said that the ships which go with cargoes towards Alexandria are not one-tenth of those that go to the further East. This is not in the older French. In the chapter on _Coilun_ (ii. p. 375), we have a notice of the Columbine ginger so celebrated in the Middle Ages, which is also absent from the older text. [4] See vol. ii. p. 439. It is, however, remarkable that a like mistake is made about the Persian Gulf (see i. 63, 64). Perhaps Polo _thought_ in Persian, in which the word _darya_ means either _sea_ or a _large river_. The same habit and the ambiguity of the Persian _sher_ led him probably to his confusion of lions and tigers (see i. 397). [5] Such are Pasciai-_Dir_ and _Ariora_ Kesciemur (i. p. 98.) [6] Thus the MSS. of this type have elected the erroneous readings _Bolgara, Cogatra, Chiato, Cabanant_, etc., instead of the correcter _Bolgana, Cocacin, Quiacatu, Cobinan_, where the G. T. presents both (_supra_, p. _86_). They read _Esanar_ for the correct _Etzina_; _Chascun_ for _Casvin_; _Achalet_ for _Acbalec_; _Sardansu_ for _Sindafu_, _Kayteu, Kayton, Sarcon_ for _Zaiton_ or _Caiton_; _Soucat_ for _Locac_; _Falec_ for _Ferlec_, and so on, the worse instead of the better. They make the _Mer Occeane_ into _Mer Occident_; the wild asses (_asnes_) of the Kerman Desert into wild geese (_oes_); the _escoillez_ of Bengal (ii. p. 115) into _escoliers_; the _giraffes_ of Africa into _girofles_, or cloves, etc., etc. [7] There are about five-and-thirty such passages altogether. [8] The Bern MS. I have satisfied myself is an actual _copy_ of the Paris MS. C. The Oxford MS. closely resembles both, but I have not made the comparison minutely enough to say if it is an exact copy of either. [9] The following comparison will also show that these two Latin versions have probably had a common source, such as is here suggested. At the end of the Prologue the Geographic Text reads simply:— “Or puis que je voz ai contez tot le fat dou prolegue ensi con voz avés oï, adonc (commencerai) le Livre.” Whilst the Geographic Latin has:— “_Postquam recitavimus et diximus facta et condictiones morum, itinerum_ et ea quae nobis contigerunt per vias, _incipiemus dicere ea quae vidimus. Et primo dicemus de Minore Hermenia_.” And Pipino:— “_Narratione facta nostri itineris, nunc ad ea narranda quae vidimus accedamus. Primo autem Armeniam Minorem describemus breviter_.” [10] Friar Francesco Pipino of Bologna, a Dominican, is known also as the author of a lengthy chronicle from the time of the Frank Kings down to 1314; of a Latin Translation of the French History of the Conquest of the Holy Land, by Bernard the Treasurer; and of a short Itinerary of a Pilgrimage to Palestine in 1320. Extracts from the Chronicle, and the version of Bernard, are printed in Muratori’s Collection. As Pipino states himself to have executed the translation of Polo by order of his Superiors, it is probable that the task was set him at a general chapter of the order which was held at Bologna in 1315. (See _Muratori_, IX. 583; and _Quétif, Script. Ord. Praed._ I. 539). We do not know why Ramusio assigned the translation specifically to 1320, but he may have had grounds. [11] See _Bianconi_, 1st Mem. 29 _seqq._ [12] C. Dickens somewhere narrates the history of the equivalents for a sovereign as changed and rechanged at every frontier on a continental tour. The final equivalent received at Dover on his return was some 12 or 13 shillings; a fair parallel to the comparative value of the first and last copies in the circle of translation. [13] The Ramusios were a family of note in literature for several generations. Paolo, the father of Gian Battista, came originally from Rimini to Venice in 1458, and had a great repute as a jurist, besides being a littérateur of some eminence, as was also his younger brother Girolamo. G. B. Ramusio was born at Treviso in 1485, and early entered the public service. In 1533 he became one of the Secretaries of the Council of X. He was especially devoted to geographical studies, and had a school for such studies in his house. He retired eventually from public duties, and lived at Villa Ramusia, near Padua. He died in the latter city, 10th July, 1557, but was buried at Venice in the Church of S. Maria dell’Orto. There was a portrait of him by Paul Veronese in the Hall of the Great Council, but it perished in the fire of 1577; and that which is now seen in the Sala dello Scudo is, like the companion portrait of Marco Polo, imaginary. Paolo Ramusio, his son, was the author of the well-known History of the Capture of Constantinople. (_Cicogna_, II. 310 _seqq._) [14] The old French texts were unknown in Marsden’s time. Hence this question did not present itself to him. [15] _Wangcheu_ in the Chinese Annals; _Vanchu_ in Ramusio. I assume that Polo’s _Vanchu_ was pronounced as in English; for in Venetian the _ch_ very often has that sound. But I confess that I can adduce no other instance in Ramusio where I suppose it to have this sound, except in the initial sound of _Chinchitalas_ and twice in _Choiach_ (see II. 364). Professor Bianconi, who has treated the questions connected with the Texts of Polo with honest enthusiasm and laborious detail, will admit nothing genuine in the Ramusian interpolations beyond the preservation of some _oral traditions_ of Polo’s supplementary recollections. But such a theory is out of the question in face of a chapter like that on Ahmad. [16] Old Purchas appears to have greatly relished Ramusio’s comparative lucidity: “I found (says he) this Booke translated by Master Hakluyt out of the Latine (_i.e._ among Hakluyt’s MS. collections). But where the blind leade the blind both fall: as here the corrupt _Latine_ could not but yeeld a corruption of truth in _English_. Ramusio, Secretarie to the _Decemviri_ in _Venice_, found a better Copie and published the same, whence you have the worke in manner new: so renewed, that I have found the Proverbe true, that it is better to pull downe an old house and to build it anew, then to repaire it; as I also should have done, had I knowne that which in the event I found. The _Latine_ is Latten, compared to _Ramusio’s_ Gold. And hee which hath the _Latine_ hath but _Marco Polo’s_ carkasse or not so much, but a few bones, yea, sometimes stones rather then bones; things divers, averse, adverse, perverted in manner, disjoynted in manner, beyond beliefe. I have seene some Authors maymed, but never any so mangled and so mingled, so present and so absent, as this vulgar _Latine_ of _Marco Polo_; not so like himselfe, as the Three _Polo’s_ were at their returne to _Venice_, where none knew them.... Much are wee beholden to _Ramusio_, for restoring this _Pole_ and Load-starre of _Asia_, out of that mirie poole or puddle in which he lay drouned.” (III. p. 65.) [17] Of these difficulties the following are some of the more prominent:—