[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
aves oi, 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 Quetif, 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.
