The maps now to be seen painted on the walls of that Hall, and on
which Polo's route is marked, are not of any great interest. But in
the middle of the 15th century there was an old Descriptio Orbis sive
Mappamundus in the Hall, and when the apartment was renewed in 1459 a
decree of the Senate ordered that such a map should be repainted on
the new walls. This also perished by a fire in 1483. On the motion of
Ramusio, in the next century, four new maps were painted. These had
become dingy and ragged, when, in 1762, the Doge Marco Foscarini
caused them to be renewed by the painter Francesco Grisellini. He
professed to have adhered closely to the old maps, but he certainly
did not, as Morelli testifies. Eastern Asia looks as if based on a
work of Ramusio's age, but Western Asia is of undoubtedly modern
character. (See Operetti di Iacopo Morelli, Ven. 1820, I. 299.)
[10] "Humboldt confirms the opinion I have more than once expressed that
too much must not be inferred from the silence of authors. He adduces
three important and perfectly undeniable matters of fact, as to which
no evidence is to be found where it would be most anticipated: In the
archives of Barcelona no trace of the triumphal entry of Columbus into
that city; in Marco Polo no allusion to the Chinese Wall; in the
archives of Portugal nothing about the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci in
the service of that crown." (Varnhagen v. Ense, quoted by Hayward,
Essays, 2nd Ser. I. 36.) See regarding the Chinese Wall the remarks
referred to above, at p. 292 of this volume.
[11] [It is a strange fact that Polo never mentions the use of Tea in
China, although he travelled through the Tea districts in Fu Kien, and
tea was then as generally drunk by the Chinese as it is now. It is
mentioned more than four centuries earlier by the Mohammedan merchant
Soleyman, who visited China about the middle of the 9th century. He
states (Reinaud, Relation des Voyages faits par les Arabes et les
Persans dans l'Inde et a la Chine, 1845, I. 40): "The people of China
are accustomed to use as a beverage an infusion of a plant, which they
call sakh, and the leaves of which are aromatic and of a bitter
taste. It is considered very wholesome. This plant (the leaves) is
sold in all the cities of the empire." (Bretschneider, Hist. Bot.
Disc.I. p. 5.) - H. C.]
[12] It is probable that Persian, which had long been the language of
Turanian courts, was also the common tongue of foreigners at that of
the Mongols. Pulisanghin and Zardandan, in the preceding list, are
pure Persian. So are several of the Oriental phrases noted at p. 84.
See also notes on Ondanique and Vernique at pp. 93 and 384 of this
volume, on Tacuin at p. 448, and a note at p. 93 supra. The
narratives of Odoric, and others of the early travellers to Cathay,
afford corroborative examples. Lord Stanley of Alderley, in one of his
contributions to the Hakluyt Series, has given evidence from
experience that Chinese Mahomedans still preserve the knowledge of
numerous Persian words.
[13] Compare these errors with like errors of Herodotus, e.g., regarding
the conspiracy of the False Smerdis. (See Rawlinson's Introduction, p.
55.) There is a curious parallel between the two also in the supposed
occasional use of Oriental state records, as in Herodotus's accounts
of the revenues of the satrapies, and of the army of Xerxes, and in
Marco Polo's account of Kinsay, and of the Kaan's revenues. (Vol. ii
pp. 185, 216.)
[14] An example is seen in the voluminous Annali Musulmani of G. B.
Rampoldi, Milan, 1825. This writer speaks of the Travels of Marco
Polo with his brother and uncle; declares that he visited Tipango
(sic), Java, Ceylon, and the Maldives, collected all the
geographical notions of his age, traversed the two peninsulas of the
Indies, examined the islands of Socotra, Madagascar, Sofala, and
traversed with philosophic eye the regions of Zanguebar, Abyssinia,
Nubia, and Egypt! and so forth (ix. 174). And whilst Malte-Brun
bestows on Marco the sounding and ridiculous title of "the Humboldt
of the 13th century," he shows little real acquaintance with his
Book. (See his Precis, ed. of 1836, I. 551 seqq.)
[15] See for example vol. i. p. 338, and note 4 at p. 341; also vol. ii.
p. 103. The descriptions in the style referred to recur in all seven
times; but most of them (which are in Book IV.) have been omitted in
this translation.
[16] [On the subject of Moses of Chorene and his works, I must refer to
the clever researches of the late Auguste Carriere, Professor of
Armenian at the Ecole des Langues Orientales. - H. C.]
[17] Zacher, Forschungen zur Critik, &c., der Alexandersage, Halle,
1867, p. 108.
[18] Even so sagacious a man as Roger Bacon quotes the fabulous letter of
Alexander to Aristotle as authentic. (Opus Majus, p. 137.)
[19] J. As. ser. VI. tom. xviii. p. 352.
[20] See passage from Jacopo d'Acqui, supra, p. 54.
[21] It is the transcriber of one of the Florence MSS. who appends this
terminal note, worthy of Mrs. Nickleby: - "Here ends the Book of Messer
M. P. of Venice, written with mine own hand by me Amalio Bonaguisi
when Podesta of Cierreto Guidi, to get rid of time and ennui. The
contents seem to me incredible things, not lies so much as miracles;
and it may be all very true what he says, but I don't believe it;
though to be sure throughout the world very different things are found
in different countries.
