As here the corrupt Latine
could not but yeeld a corruption of truth in English. Ramusio,
Secretarie to the Decemviri in Venice, found a better Copie and
published the same, whence you have the worke in manner new: so
renewed, that I have found the Proverbe true, that it is better to
pull downe an old house and to build it anew, then to repaire it; as I
also should have done, had I knowne that which in the event I found.
The Latine is Latten, compared to Ramusio's Gold. And hee which
hath the Latine hath but Marco Polo's carkasse or not so much, but
a few bones, yea, sometimes stones rather then bones; things divers,
averse, adverse, perverted in manner, disjoynted in manner, beyond
beliefe. I have seene some Authors maymed, but never any so mangled
and so mingled, so present and so absent, as this vulgar Latine of
Marco Polo; not so like himselfe, as the Three Polo's were at
their returne to Venice, where none knew them.... Much are wee
beholden to Ramusio, for restoring this Pole and Load-starre of
Asia, out of that mirie poole or puddle in which he lay drouned."
(III. p. 65.)
[17] Of these difficulties the following are some of the more prominent: -
1. The mention of the death of Kublai (see note 7, p. 38 of this
volume), whilst throughout the book Polo speaks of Kublai as if still
reigning.
