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0257 Notes on Marco Polo : vol.2
Notes on Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 257 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000246
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362. TINGIU   853

  1.  TIGRI

t igeri FA tigri F, VA

tigris L, LT, P5, V, VB, VL, Z; R

tigro TA3 tygre 0

tygris P tygry FB

The name is that of the Tigris river, but Polo, who mentions the name twice, uses it only as a designation of the Volga; and so does Paschal de Vittoria in 1338 (Y, i, 9; YI, III, 84). The theory of the four rivers flowing from Paradise has something to do with that strange error (cf. the extraordinary jumble made by Marignolli in Y', ni, 220-226; for the four rivers, add L. DAMES, Duarte Barbosa, I, 89). In the case of the Tigris, the confusion may have been helped by some phonetic analogy between « Tigri » and the name Itii, Etil, of the Volga (on which cf. YI, II, 242; FERRAND, in JA, 1925, II, 116; BROCKELMANN, Kayar , 44). But that does not account for J. Barbaro giving the name of Tigris to the Araxes (RAMuslo, II, 98 b; YI, III, 84), unless it be because the Araxes passes at Tiflis. The confusion between Etil and Tigri must have occurred in RAMUSIO, as he gives in the present passage Herdil instead of Tigri (cf. B,17); RAMUSIO uses the same spelling « Herdil » in his « Dichiaratione », 14 a, when he gives it as one of the vulgar names of the Volga; probably he owed it to Josafa Barbaro, where we find the name written Erdil (RAMusio, H, 92 a)

  1.  TINGIU (c. 157)

linigui VA tenugnise TAI timigui LT tinçu Z

tingui VB; R tinguy P tiniguise TA3 tinugiu F, L

tiunguy FA tranguy FB tungui V tyunguy FA, FB

The reading in Z, « Tinçu », is also the one given on Fra Mauro's map (not « Tinzu » as in Zu, 38, copied by HALLBERG, 538). The « Tingiu » of the present translation is based on Z and R; it is no more intended to be taken as the original and correct form than PAUTHIER'S « Tiunguy » or YULE'S « Tyunju ».

The various attempts made to identify «Tingiu» have been suggested by two different considerations : either from the great sale which « Tingiu » porcelain had all over the world, or from its site which was believed to be not far from Ch'üan-chou (« Çaiton »), described by Polo just before « Tingiu ».

The fame of the porcelain of Ching-tê-chên in Chiang-hsi led MURRAY to identify « Tingiu » with Ching-tê-chên, or with its chief mart Jao-chou-fu, on the P'o-yang Lake. This solution, accepted by YULE (Y, II, 243), is also the only one proposed, though with some hesitation, by PENZER (Pe, 237) and BENEDETTO (B, 448). PAUTHIER (Pa, 532,) without alluding to MURRAY'S

opinion, gave as a fact the equivalence of « Tiunguy » with a   Tê-hua, locally « Tek-hôe », a

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