Volume I Part 36 (1/2)

(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' e 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 .. Dominae eorum _portant ad brachia et ad gambas brazalia de auro_ et de argento magni valoris.

B. _Pa.s.sages 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 e 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 e _per lo mare_ che vi viene.

G.L. 324 .. Istud est _propter mare_ quod est ibi.

(9). G.T. 8 (I. 50.) Un roi qi est apeles par tout tens Davit Melic, que veut a dir _en fransois_ Davit Roi.

Crusca, 20 .. Uno re il quale si chiama _sempre_ David Melic, ci e a dire _in francesco_ David Re.

G.L. 312 .. Rex qui _semper_ vocatur David Mellic, quod sonat _in gallico_ David Rex.

These pa.s.sages, 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 pa.s.sage regarding the Golden King (vol. ii. p. 17) which begins in G. T. ”_Lequel fist faire_ jadis _un rois qe fu apelles 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 cla.s.s of MSS. alone names the King of England.

In the account of the Battle with Nayan (i. p. 337) this cla.s.s alone speaks of the two-stringed instruments which the Tartars played whilst awaiting the signal for battle. But the circ.u.mstance appears elsewhere in the G. T. (p. 250).

In the chapter on _Malabar_ (vol. ii. p. 390), it is said that the s.h.i.+ps 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 a.s.ses (_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 pa.s.sages 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 aves o, adonc (commencerai) le Livre.”