IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD, THE PALACE AT CIANDU .74.
great cold he does not stay there at that tine) he has them carried to him wherever he may be, loaded on camels. • All these & many other things are prepared for his court in very great VB quantity of all things for his living & that of his family, until the greatness of all his needs is a wonderful and stupendous thing to see. And from this we shall set out and shall
go forward three days journeys between tramontaine and the Greek wind. FB
HERE HE TELLS OF THE CITY OF CIANDU AND OF THE WONDERFUL PALACE OF .7S .
THE GREAT KAAN. And when one is set out from the city of Ciagannor LT which I have named to you above and one goes riding [32,b] three days FB journeys then one finds a city which is called Ciandu, which the great Kaan, who now TA
is and reigns and who has the name Cublai Kaan, who is spoken of in this book, made VA
them make there. And in this city Cublai Kaan made them make there a vast palace
of marble cunningly worked and of other fair stone, which with one end has its boundary VB R R
in the middle of the city, and with the other with the wall of it. The halls and rooms and VB
passages are all gilded & wonderfully painted •within with pictures and images of beasts VB FB
and birds and trees and flowers and many kinds of things, so well and so cunningly that it
is a delight and a wonder to see. It is very wonderfully beautiful and well worked.
And from this palace is built a second wall which in the direction opposite to the palace, R R
closing one end in the wall of the city on one side of the palace and the other on the other side,
encloses and surrounds quite sixteen' miles of plain land in circuit, • in such a way that R P R
unless one starts from the palace he cannot enter into that close; • & it is fortified like a castle; y
in which wall' are fountains and rivers of running water and very beautiful lawns and VA VB R VB
groves enough. And the great Kaan keeps all sorts of not fierce wild beasts which can FB VB
be named there, & in very great numbers, that is harts and bucks and roe-deer, to give VB
to the gerfalcons to eat and to the falcons, which he keeps in mew in that place,
which are more than two hundred gerfalcons without the falcons. And he always goes FB FB R
himself to see them in mew at least once every week. And the great Kaan often R
goes riding through this parka which is surrounded with a wall and takes with him VA
one tame leopard or more on the crupper of his horse, and when he wishes he lets P R
it go and takes one of the aforesaid animals, a hart or buck or roe-deer and has them y
given to the falcons and gerfalcons which he keeps in mew. And he does that often R P
for his pleasure and for amusement. And certainly this place is so well kept & adorned vB
that it is a most noble thing of great delight. And again you may know that in the
middle place of that park thus surrounded with a wall, where there is a most beautiful y R
1 TA,LT,VA,P: "fifteen"
2 P: nemore
3 V: vano in chauo de quele mure et essendo a chauo.
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