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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
IRISH VERSION OF POLO'S BOOK
103
i
i
~
Finghin 1\IacCarthy and his wife Catharine Fitzgerald, daughter
of Gerald, Eighth Earl of Desmond.
The date of the Translation of Polo is not known, but it may
be supposed to have been executed about the above date, prob-
ably in the Monastery of Lismore (county of Waterford).
From the extracts that have been translated for me, it is
obvious that the version was made, with an astounding freedom
certainly, from Friar Francesco Pipino's Latin.
Both beginning and end are missing. But what remains
opens thus ; compare it with Friar Pipino's real prologue as
we give it in the Appendix !*
« rtj5ttj1i -T z4iitfclj na catbri bai 1f-64 4 llj5uj anaibiz ran ynrer jr
cazl)1t njzanr . ba eoluc z4 jí naljjlbcltlajb yrianrrc) aainl . bsttri jai
Ott anibaz 114 maize ucttz icunj3jz y4 fjleabo2 coclo' tcttta
otCfl54J 6 1)azgza)llf'6 c5 jrjz[f5 taitan-aa." &C.
" Kings and chieftains of that city. There was then in the city a
princely Friar in the habit of St. Francis, named Franciscus, who was versed in many languages. He was brought to the place where those nobles were, and they requested of him to translate the book from the Tartar (!) into the Latin language. ` It is an abomination to me,' said he, to devote my mind or labour to works of Idolatry and Irreligion.' They entreated him again. ` It shall be done,' said be ; for though it be an irreligious narrative that is related therein, yet the things are miracles of the True God ; and every one who hears this much against the Holy Faith shall pray fervently for their conversion. And he who will not pray shall waste the vigour of his body to convert them.' I am not in dread of this Book of Marcus, for there is no lie in it. My eyes beheld him bringing the relics of the holy Church with him, and he left [his testimony], whilst tasting of death, that it was true. And Marcus was a devout man. What is there in it, then, but that Franciscus translated this Book of Marcus from the Tartar into Latin ; and the years of the Lord at that time were fifteen years, two scoré, two hundred, and one thousand " (1255).
It then describes Armein Bec (Little Armenia), Armein 1llor
(Great Armenia), Musul, Taurisius, Persida, Camandi, and so
forth. The last chapter is that on Abaschia
" ABASCHIA also is an extensive country, under the government of Seven
* My valued friend Sir Arthur Phayre iiiade known to me the passage in O'Curry's Lectures. I then procured the extracts and further particulars from Mr. J. Long, Irish Transcriber and Translator in Dublin, who took them from the Transcript of the Book of Lismore, in the possession of the Royal Irish Academy. [Cf. Anecdota Oxoniensia. Lives of the Saints font the Book of Lismore, edited with a translation . . . . by Whitley Stokes, Oxford, 189o.—Marco Polo forms fo. 79 a, i—fo. 89 b, 2, of the MS., and is described pp. xxii.-xxiv. of Mr. Whitley Stokes' Book, who has since published the Text in the Zeit. f Celtische Philol. (See Bibliography, vol. ii. p. 573.)—H. C.1
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