It Is Not Possible To Interpret Rigidly The Bearing Of This So-Called
Certificate, As If No Copies Had Previously
Been taken of any form of
the Book; nor can we allow it to impugn the authenticity of the Geographic
Text, which demonstratively represents an older original, and has been (as
we have seen) the parent of all other versions, including some very old
ones, Italian and Latin, which certainly owe nothing to this revision.
The first idea apparently entertained by d'Avezac and Paulin Paris was
that the Geographic Text was itself the copy given to the Sieur de
Cepoy, and that the differences in the copies of the class which we
describe as Type II. merely resulted from the modifications which would
naturally arise in the process of transcription into purer French. But
closer examination showed the differences to be too great and too marked
to admit of this explanation. These differences consist not only in the
conversion of the rude, obscure, and half Italian language of the original
into good French of the period. There is also very considerable
curtailment, generally of tautology, but also extending often to
circumstances of substantial interest; whilst we observe the omission of a
few notably erroneous statements or expressions; and a few insertions of
small importance. None of the MSS. of this class contain more than a few
of the historical chapters which we have formed into Book IV.
The only addition of any magnitude is that chapter which in our
translation forms chapter xxi.
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