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
;i
i 51.
.T52•
THE NOBLE & MAGNIFICENT CITY OF QUINSAI OMARCO POLO
L L all the province. They have also extremely good hunting and chase enough both of beasts
and of birds. There is nothing else which does to mention and so we will leave this
and will go forward and will tell you of the other city, and it will be of the noble R R city of Quinsai which is the chief and capital town of the king of the province of
Mangi.
R ERE HE TELLS OF THE NOBLE AND MAGNIFICENT CITY OF QUINSAI. When
FB one sets out from the city of Ciangan he goes riding three' days journeys
FA Z Z through very beautiful country where there are found many dwellings and cities
FB and many villages of great importance and of great wealth and of great activity, where
V they live by trade and by crafts . They are idolaters and are subject to the rule of the great Kaan. They have money of notes. They have abundance of all victuals for FB man's body. And when one is gone riding these three' days journeys then one finds R R the very most noble and magnificent city which for its excellence, importance, and beauty FB is called Quinsai, which means to say in French the city of Heaven, just as I told z R you before, for it is the greatest city which may be found in the world, •where so many pleasures may be found that one fancies himself to be in Paradise. And since we are come there so will we tell you all its great nobility, because it does well to relate, that it is without P fail the most noble city and the best that is in the world, and it is the principal in the z province of Mangi. And then we will tell you of the state & nobility of it according z as the queen of this realm, as is said in the book above, sends in writing to Baian who z conquers this province, before it was taken by the army besieging it, that he should send z it to the great Kaan, declaring namely the whole nobility and being of it, so that he might z z know the great nobility[and]magnificence of this city, whereby, being grieved that it VB should be destroyed, he should not cause it to be destroyed or ruined;3 and that letter FB Z I Marc saw and read. And as it was contained in that writing I will describe to you • in FB FB order• just as it [66c] was truth, according to that which I the said Master Marc Pol
1 Z: una, which may probably be right. VA,P have five days from Sugiu. LT (? alone): Quando homo recedit hinc.s.de vghin et vadit tres giornatas, so perhaps explaining the error in F,FA,FB,TA. The complete text may have specified one day from Sugiu to Vugiu, one day from Vugiu to Vughin, two days from Vughin to Ciangan, one day from Ciangan to Quinsai; from which VA,P may have calculated five days from Sugiu to Quinsai, and LT three days from Vughin to Quinsai, while the other texts abbreviated with less careful attention.
2 Z: una LT: trium VA,P do not repeat the number.
3 L: Eius autenl nobilitas scita est in curia magni Kanis. dum enim obsideretur ab exercitu magni Kanis. regina sperans quod pietate motus magnus Kanis non sineret destrui tam pulcram et nobilem ciuitatem. tins conditiones scribere propossuit in hunt modum.//Ciuitas Quinsai circuit ... giving the description like a quotation.
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