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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
I•
366
MARCO POLO BOOK II.
of colour ! Everybody who sees them is delighted.
And the Great Kaan had caused this beautiful prospect
to be formed for the comfort and solace and delectation
of his heart.
You must know that beside the Palace (that we have
been describing), i.e. the Great Palace, the Emperor has
caused another to be built just like his own in every
respect, and this he bath done for his son when he shall
reign and be Emperor after him.14 Hence it is made
just in the same fashion and of the same size, so that
everything can be carried on in the same manner after
his own death. [It stands on the other side of the lake
from the Great Kaan's Palace, and there is a bridge
crossing the water from one to the other.]" The Prince
in question holds now a Seal of Empire, but not with
such complete authoritÿ as the Great Kaan, who remains
supreme as long as he lives.
Now I am going to tell you of the chief city of
Cathay, in which these Palaces stand ; and why it was
built, and how.
NOTE 1.—[According to the Cz'ue keng lu, translated by Bretschneider, 25, " the wall surrounding the palace . . . is constructed of bricks, and is 35 clz'i in height. The construction was begun in A.D. 1271, on the 17th of the 8th month, between three and five o'clock in the afternoon, and finished next year on the 15th of the 3rd month."—H. C.]
NOTE 2.—Tarcasci (G. T.) This word is worthy of note as the proper form of what has become in modern French carquois. The former is a transcript of the Persian Tdrk sh ; the latter appears to be merely a corruption of it, arising perhaps clerically from the constant confusion of c and t in MSS. (See Defrémery, quoted by Pauthier, in loco.) [Old French tarquais (13th century), Hatzfeldt and Darmesteter's Dict. gives : " Coivres orent ceinz et tarchais." (WALE, Pou, I II., 7698 ; 12th century).]
NOTE 3.—[" It seems to me [Dr. Bretschneider] that Polo took the towers, mentioned by the Chinese author, in the angles of the galleries and of the Kungch'eng for palaces ; for further on he states, that ` over each gate [of Cambaluc_] there is a great and handsome palace.' I have little doubt that over the gates of Cambaluc, stood lofty buildings similar to those over the gates of modern Peking. These tower-like buildings are called /on by the Chinese. It may be very likely, that at the time of Marco Polo, the war harness of the Khan was stored in these towers of the palace wall. The author of the Ci'ue Aeng lac, who wrote more than fifty years later, assigns to it another place." (Bretschneider, Peking, 32.)—II. C.]
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