By Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
Including the unabridged third edition (1903) of Henry Yule's annotated
translation, as revised by Henri Cordier; together with Cordier's later
volume of notes and addenda (1920)
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME I
Containing the first volume of the 1903 edition
DEDICATION.
TO THE MEMORY OF
SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON, BART., K.C.B., G.C.ST.A., G.C.ST.S.,
ETC.
THE PERFECT FRIEND
WHO FIRST BROUGHT HENRY YULE AND JOHN MURRAY TOGETHER
(HE ENTERED INTO REST, OCTOBER 22ND, 1871,)
AND TO THAT OF HIS MUCH LOVED NIECE,
HARRIET ISABELLA MURCHISON,
WIFE OF KENNETH ROBERT MURCHISON, D.L., J.P.,
(SHE ENTERED INTO REST, AUGUST 9TH, 1902,)
UNDER WHOSE EVER HOSPITABLE ROOF MANY OF THE PROOF
SHEETS OF THIS EDITION WERE READ BY ME,
I DEDICATE THESE VOLUMES FROM
THE OLD MURCHISON HOME,
IN THANKFUL REMEMBRANCE OF ALL I OWE TO
THE ABIDING AFFECTION, SYMPATHY, AND EXAMPLE OF BOTH.
TARADALE, AMY FRANCES YULE.
ROSS-SHIRE, SEPTEMBER 11TH, 1902.
SCOTLAND.
* * * *
Ed e da noi si strano,
Che quando ne ragiono
I' non trovo nessuno,
Che l'abbia navicato,
* * * *
Le parti del Levante,
La dove sono tante
Gemme di gran valute
E di molta salute:
E sono in quello giro
Balsamo, e ambra, e tiro,
E lo pepe, e lo legno
Aloe, ch' e si degno,
E spigo, e cardamomo,
Giengiovo, e cennamomo;
E altre molte spezie,
Ciascuna in sua spezie,
E migliore, e piu fina,
E sana in medicina.
Appresso in questo loco
Mise in assetto loco
Li tigri, e li grifoni,
Leofanti, e leoni
Cammelli, e dragomene,
Badalischi, e gene,
E pantere, e castoro,
Le formiche dell' oro,
E tanti altri animali,
Ch' io non so ben dir quail,
Che son si divisati,
E si dissomigliati
Di corpo e di fazione,
Di si fera ragione,
E di si strana taglia,
Ch'io non credo san faglia,
Ch' alcun uomo vivente
Potesse veramente
Per lingua, o per scritture
Recitar le figure
Delle bestie, e gli uccelli....
- From _Il Tesoretto di Ser Brunetto Latini_ (circa MDCCLX.).
(_Florence_, 1824, pp. 83 seqq.)
[Illustration]
[Greek:
Andra moi hennepe, Mousa, polytropon, hos mala polla
Plagchthae . . . . . . .
Pollon d' anthropon iden astea kai noon egno].
_Odyssey_, I.
- "I AM BECOME A NAME;
FOR ALWAYS ROAMING WITH A HUNGRY HEART
MUCH HAVE I SEEN AND KNOWN; CITIES OF MEN,
AND MANNERS, CLIMATES, COUNCILS, GOVERNMENTS,
MYSELF NOT LEAST, BUT HONOURED OF THEM ALL."
TENNYSON.
"A SEDER CI PONEMMO IVI AMBODUI
VOLTI A LEVANTE, OND' ERAVAM SALITI;
CHE SUOLE A RIGUARDAR GIOVARE ALTRUI."
DANTE, _Purgatory_, IV.
[Illustration: Messer Marco Polo, with Messer Nicolo and Messer Maffeo,
returned from xxvi years' sojourn in the Orient, is denied entrance to the
Ca' Polo. (See Int. p. 4)]
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
DEDICATION
NOTE BY MISS YULE
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
ORIGINAL PREFACE
ORIGINAL DEDICATION
MEMOIR OF SIR HENRY YULE BY AMY FRANCES YULE, L.A.SOC. ANT. SCOT.
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SIR HENRY YULE'S WRITINGS
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS
EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I.
INTRODUCTORY NOTICES
THE BOOK OF MARCO POLO.
NOTE BY MISS YULE
I desire to take this opportunity of recording my grateful sense of the
unsparing labour, learning, and devotion, with which my father's valued
friend, Professor Henri Cordier, has performed the difficult and delicate
task which I entrusted to his loyal friendship.
Apart from Professor Cordier's very special qualifications for the work,
I feel sure that no other Editor could have been more entirely acceptable
to my father. I can give him no higher praise than to say that he has
laboured in Yule's own spirit.
The slight Memoir which I have contributed (for which I accept all
responsibility), attempts no more than a rough sketch of my father's
character and career, but it will, I hope, serve to recall pleasantly his
remarkable individuality to the few remaining who knew him in his prime,
whilst it may also afford some idea of the man, and his work and
environment, to those who had not that advantage.
No one can be more conscious than myself of its many shortcomings, which I
will not attempt to excuse. I can, however, honestly say that these have
not been due to negligence, but are rather the blemishes almost inseparable
from the fulfilment under the gloom of bereavement and amidst the pressure
of other duties, of a task undertaken in more favourable circumstances.
Nevertheless, in spite of all defects, I believe this sketch to be such
a record as my father would himself have approved, and I know also that he
would have chosen my hand to write it.
In conclusion, I may note that the first edition of this work was
dedicated to that very noble lady, the Queen (then Crown Princess)
Margherita of Italy. In the second edition the Dedication was reproduced
within brackets (as also the original preface), but not renewed. That
precedent is again followed.
I have, therefore, felt at liberty to associate the present edition of my
father's work with the Name MURCHISON, which for more than a generation
was the name most generally representative of British Science in Foreign
Lands, as of Foreign Science in Britain.
A. F. YULE.
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
Little did I think, some thirty years ago, when I received a copy of the
first edition of this grand work, that I should be one day entrusted with
the difficult but glorious task of supervising the third edition. When the
first edition of the Book of Ser Marco Polo reached "Far Cathay," it
created quite a stir in the small circle of the learned foreigners, who
then resided there, and became a starting-point for many researches, of
which the results have been made use of partly in the second edition, and
partly in the present. The Archimandrite PALLADIUS and Dr. E.
BRETSCHNEIDER, at Peking, ALEX. WYLIE, at Shang-hai - friends of mine who
have, alas! passed away, with the exception of the Right Rev.
