IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
286 NOTICES OF THE LAND ROUTE TO CATHAY, ETC.
All these names mean duties which have to be paid for goods and wares, and other things, imported to or exported from, or passed through the countries and places detailed in
this paragraph.
lifercato in Tuscan ; and Piazza' in several tongues ;
Bazarra and Raba in Genoese ;2 Fondaco in several languages ; Focla in Cyprus ; Alla3 in Flemish ; Sugo in Sara-
cenesque ;4 Fiera in Tuscan and several other tongues ;
Panichiero in Greek
All signify the place where goods are sold in cities, and where in towns and villages all manner of victuals and
necessaries for the life of man are brought for sale, with corn and cattle which are brought there continually at certain
fixed times of the week, or month, or year. These may suffice as specimens.
Then some doggrel verses to the following purport introduce the body of the work.
Honesty is always best
And to look before ye leap :
Do ever what thou promisest ;
And, hard though it may be, still keep
Fair chastity. Let reason tell
Cheap to buy and dear to sell,
But have a civil tongue as well.
Frequent the church's rites, and spare
To Him who sends thy gains a share.
So shalt thou prosper, standing by one price,
And shunning pest-like usury and dice.
Take aye good heftd to govern well thy pen,
And blunder not in black and white ! AMEN !
applied to the stamp or certificate by which goods were declared to be free after payment of customs. I am not aware that the word is used in that sense now." This suggestion is strengthened by the analogous use of Fadc£ in the preceding note, and by the fact that Pegolotti in a later passage calls it Intalacca, an export duty levied in the ports of Morocco.
By Spain he means the Moorish ports on both sides of the strait, as his details show (pp. 278 segq.).
1 Piazza is commonly used for mercato in Palermo, where this note is written.
2 I do not know what Raba is, unless (like Bazarra) borrowed from the Arabic Raba', a quarter" (see under Rashiduddin, supra, p. 25).
3 The French Halle. 4 Arab. Sûq.
5 This must be 1ravvy6pcov, which has the meaning of a fair or market in Byzantine Greek (Ducange).
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