National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD AND EARLIER EDITIONS

NOTES

6. The following description of this MS. is derived from The Pierpont Morgan Library Exhibition of illuminated Manuscripts held at the N.Y. Public Library, New York, Nov. 1933—April 1934, 1934, p• 39, No. 75. The book is written in French on vellum, 196 leaves, 311 X 130 mm., 34 miniatures, 34 illuminated initials. It is described as "early XV century" and as "executed about 1400." It was formerly in the library of the Chateau de la Roche-Guyon, and was bought at the sale of that library on 2 July 1927, for 250000 fr. by QUARITCH for Mr J. P. MORGAN.

47. This manuscript is in the Library of the Benedictine Monastery at Admont. The following is a summary of a description given by the editor, E. Horst von TSCHARNER, in Der mitteldeutsche Marco Polo, 1935, p. IL: Pressmark 504, quarto size, bound in old red leather over wooden boards, parchment, 121 leaves, 236 X 166 mm., written in two columns in Gothic bóok-writing of the late fourteenth century, headings and initials red, as are also the initials of the sentences and of the proper names. Marco Polo occupies fol. Ir°-59v°. The language is an east middle German dialect; the spelling points to a date in the second half of the fourteenth century. The manuscript is not the original translation, which however must have belonged to the same dialect; probably the original belongs to the middle or first half of the fourteenth century. Agnes HOFFMANN (Untersuchungen gu den altdeutschen Marco Polo-Texten, 1936, p. 19) dates the writing about the year 1400, mentioning also an even later date. The book does not seem to be mentioned in the extant catalogues of the Library which date from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

53. This manuscript was sold in 1929 by Messrs MAGGS Bros of London to Mr George PLIMPTON of New York, and was transferred to Columbia University after Mr PLIMPTON'S death which took place in July 1936. Through the kindness of Dr Samuel A. IvES of the Library of Columbia University we are able to give the following description. The manuscript is written on paper, 43 leaves, of which the last two are blank, measuring 200 X 145 mm. "There are no notes whatsoever as to its provenance, although there are a great many marginal annotations in a later hand." The text begins, without a title, on fol. Ir°: Narracionem morum operacionum sine occupacionuin & rituum diuersarum gencinni habitantibus in diuersis prouinciis ad orientalem plagam & ad septentrionalem plagam nec non meridionalem constitutis Discretus vir dominus marcus ciuis veneciarum narrat eciam condiciones prouinciarum & fructuum ... Peruenerunt auteur coram cublay chaan Anno domini m° cc° lxix° steterunt vero in curia dicti domini multis annis ita quod quando venerunt iterum ad venecias a dicte domino prius licencia multis precibus inpetrata currebant Anno domini m° ccc° v infra dictum autem tempus quod fuit xxxvj annorum ... and ends on fol. 41r°: Sont eciam in roscia multe minerie argenti de quo lucrantur minerarii illius prouincie Est eciam in roscia tanta & tam sempiterna frigiditas quod

vix potest ibi viuere homo uel animal Anno quo supra   Kai. May

56. For knowledge of this MS. we are indebted first to Joaquin Hazafias y la RUA Maese Rodrigo 1444-1509, Sevilla, 1909, pp. 52, 53 : "We had the good luck to find the Italian book of Marco Polo which Maese Rodrigo (i.e. Santaella) possessed. It is a manuscript of 78 leaves without foliation, in quarto, written in two colours, with notes; a valuable codex in contemporary binding, somewhat spoilt by the action of time. It belonged to the library of the Colegio Mayor de Santa Maria de Jesus, where it was kept on shelf 2 number 8 (cajón 2 colateral número 8), which indication it retains. It disappeared and was lost for many years, but was found lately in a garret of an old building of the Colegio with other papers, and is now kept in the Library of the Seminario at Seville. The said manuscript begins thus: Qui comenza el Libro el quai tracta dele cose mirabile the vedette el nobile homo Misser Marco polo de venetia.... It contains a hundred thirty and five chapters and ends: Complutu e lulibru dicossi mirabili delo mundo liquali videcte Misser Marco polo nobili di vinecia alaudi dilu Fipotente deo et dila sua matrj Virginj maria. Il dij 20 Augusti 1493. Finis. laus tibi xe. We have not had the good fortune to find the original of Micer Pogio of which Santaella made use." cf. N. M. PENZER Marco Polo p. xxvi. (pl. 42.)

It has fortunately been possible to verify and correct from photographs the strange spelling of the incipit and explicit as given by la RUA. They serve to show that the original from which the copy was made was probably closely related to VL, a conclusion which is altogether supported by SANTAELLA'S Spanish version. The corresponding parts in VL read: Comen&a el libro el qual tratta de le cosse mirabile the nide & audi el nobel homo Miser Marche polo da uenesia in le parte doriente yhs and: Complito el libro de le cosse mirabile uedute per lo nobele homo miser marche polo gientilomo de venesia ... alonore e laude de lonnippotente.

61. The following description is taken from Seymour de RICCi and W. J. WILSON, Census of medieval and renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, vol. I, 1935, p. 897, No. 157: "Marco Polo, De mirabilibus Orientalium

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