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.
