chronicle, see p. 335), and previous to the death of Innocent VI, of whom he speaks in the last paragraph of his book as still reigning ; i.e., between May 1354 and September 1362. But there can be little doubt that he wrote the book during his visit to Prague in 1354 or 1355.
It has been already said that Marignolli must have been an old man when he wrote these recollections ; and I think readers will assent to this, though it has been found impossible in the translation to avoid softening his peculiarities. There are often vivid remembrance and graphic description of what he has seen ; but these are combined with the incontinent vanity of something like second childhood, and with an incoherent lapse from one subject to another, matched by nothing in literature except the conversation of Mrs. Nickleby. His Latin is of a bad sort of badness. The Latin of Jordanus is bad in one sense. When he says " istucl ales luocl vocatur rkinocerumta," he utters almost as many blunders as words ; but he is nearly always perfectly and vividly intelligible. The Latin of Marignolli is bad because it is the hazy expression of confused thoughts.' The supposition that Marignolli was at this time advanced in years, and moreover not looked on as very wise in his generation, is confirmed by a curious letter bearing to be addressed to hint by a Bishop of Armagh, which
1 As an example of Marignolli's incoherence take the original of a passage in Dobner, p. 100 (see below, in chapter Concerning Clothing of our First Parents).
"Ideo videtur sine assercione dicendum quod non pelliceas tunicas est legendum sed filiceas. Nam inter folia nargillorum de quibus supra dictum est nascuntur fila ad modum tele staminis quasi grossi et rani sicci de quibus eciam hodie fiunt apud illos et apud Judeos vestes pro pluvia rusticorum qui vocantur Camalli portantes see opera et eciam hommes et mulieres portant super scapulas in lecticis de quibus in Canticis : ferculum fecit sibi Salomon de lignis Libani, id est lectulum portatilem slant portabar ego in Zayton et in India. Unam talem vestem de filis illis camallorum non camelorum portavi ego usque Florenciam et dimisi in sacristie Minorum similem vesti Iohannis Baptiste. Nam pill camelorum sunt delicacior lana que sit in mundo post sericum. Fui enim aliquando CUM infinitis camelis et pullis camelorum in deserto vastissimo descendendo de Babilon confusionis versus Egiptum per viam Damasci cum Arabibus infinitis. Nec in Seyllano sunt cameli sed elephantes innumeri qui licet sint ferocissimi raro tarnen nocent homini peregrino. Ego equitavi super unum Regine Sabe qui videbatur habere usum racionis si non esset contra Bela."
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