IV. p. 5"; for the latter to that of the Abate Carini
of the Reale Archivio at Palermo; it is in Archivio della Regia
Cancellaria 1343-1357, f. 58.
The mission of this MARCO POLO is mentioned also in a rescript of the
Sicilian king Peter II., dated Messina, 14th November, 1340, in
reference to certain claims of Venice, about which the said Marco
appeared as the Doge's ambassador. This is printed in F. TESTA, De
Vita et Rebus Gestis Federici II., Siciliae Regis, Panormi, 1775, pp.
267 seqq. The Sicilian Antiquary Rosario Gregorio identifies the Envoy
with our Marco, dead long before. (See Opere scelte del Canon Ros.
Gregorio, Palermo, 1845, 3za ediz., p. 352.)
It is possible that this Marco, who from the latter notice seems to
have been engaged in mercantile affairs, may have been the Marcolino
above mentioned, but it is perhaps on the whole more probable that
this nobilis vir is the Marco spoken of in the note at p. 74.
[38] La Collezione del Doge Marin Faliero e i Tesori di Marco Polo,
pp. 98-103. I have seen this article. - H. C.
IX. MARCO POLO'S BOOK; AND THE LANGUAGE IN WHICH IT WAS FIRST WRITTEN.
[Illustration: Porcelain Incense Burner, from the Louvre]
[Sidenote: General statement of what the Book contains.]
50. The Book itself consists essentially of Two Parts. First, of a
Prologue, as it is termed, the only part which is actual personal
narrative, and which relates, in a very interesting but far too brief
manner, the circumstances which led the two elder Polos to the Kaan's
Court, and those of their second journey with Mark, and of their return to
Persia through the Indian Seas. Secondly, of a long series of chapters
of very unequal length, descriptive of notable sights and products, of
curious manners and remarkable events, relating to the different nations
and states of Asia, but, above all, to the Emperor Kublai, his court,
wars, and administration. A series of chapters near the close treats in a
verbose and monotonous manner of sundry wars that took place between the
various branches of the House of Chinghiz in the latter half of the 13th
century. This last series is either omitted or greatly curtailed in all
the copies and versions except one; a circumstance perfectly accounted for
by the absence of interest as well as value in the bulk of these chapters.
Indeed, desirous though I have been to give the Traveller's work complete,
and sharing the dislike that every man who uses books must bear to
abridgments, I have felt that it would be sheer waste and dead-weight to
print these chapters in full.
[Illustration: Temple of 500 Genii at Canton after a Drawing by FELIX
REGAMEY]
This second and main portion of the Work is in its oldest forms undivided,
the chapters running on consecutively to the end.[1] In some very early
Italian or Venetian version, which Friar Pipino translated into Latin, it
was divided into three Books, and this convenient division has generally
been adhered to.
