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

THE CLASSIFIED LIST OF THE MANUSCRIPTS rMARCO POLO

regionum. Vel. (ca. 1400), 53 ff. (26 X 18 cm.). Wanting 6 ff. Early owner (xvth c. ?) John Bulkeley; later (early xvith c.) Lord Leonard Grey (? Viscount Crane, beheaded 1541); the Earl of Powis sale (London, 20 March

1923, n. 211) to Quaritch. Obtained (March 1929) from Quaritch."   From photographs supplied by Mr R.
GARRETT It is seen that the opening of the first chapter reads: Qualiter et quare Dominus Nicholaus de veneciis et Domina marcus transierimt ad partes orientales. Capitulo. primo. TEmpore quo Balduinus ... and the book ends: regiones

deferunt   Explicit liber Domini marchi Pauli de venecijs   After this explicit are written in later hands : Explicit

liber de moribus et ritibus orientalium gentium   Soryswych   Joannes bulkeleus   To the right hon'able   my singuler

ti~(?)   This indenture made the t 8 (?) day of may this yere of our lorde.kyng henri the

good lord lord leonard gray this be dely xxxv(=1543)•

112. This is a manuscript which has not been identified and may be the same as one of those given above. It is recorded in SANDERUS Bibliotheca Belgica Manuscripta, 1641, p. 284. cf. B. p. cxliii.

113. This manuscript was formerly in the library of Jacopo SORANZO in Venice (Francesco MELCHIORI Catologo dei mss. in 4° (ms. Marciano 657o—Ital. x 139), no. 424). Thence it passed to the library of Luigi CANONICI, and from him to Walter SNEYD in 1836. It was sold at SOTHEBY'S (Catalogue, No. 48o, SNEYD Collection) in 1903 for ER) 5s. od. and bought by Bernard QUARITCH on commission for a Berlin bookseller. By combining the descriptions given by B. and in SOTHEBY'S Catalogue, we arrive at the following: Paper, 135 leaves, small neat Roman (sic) letter, 25 lines to a full page. Red rubrics and painted capitals. Bound in vellum. Small quarto. The contents were: Marco Polo fol. I-104, De lotis terre sancte visitatis per me fratrem Franciscum Pipinum fol. 105-117, Historia de septent sapientibus fol. 118-135. Marco Polo began: Liber domini Marchi Pauli de .Venetiis de condictionibus et consuetudinibus orientalium regionum—Librum prudentis venerabilis ac fidelis viri domini Marchipauli de Venetiis ... and ended: sett falcones et provincias deferuntur. Explicit liber tertius quem librum frater francischus pipinus ... de vulgari in grammaticam et bonam et intelligibilem latinitatem translavit Deo gratias amen Explicit per me Johannem de Saxonia liber iste anno domini M.4.5. in vigilia epyphanie trium regum die quinto januarii in civitala (sic) bergami Deo gratias The date thus given corresponds to 5 January 1406. B. prints "anno 5407" and "civitate Bergami". cf. B. pp. cxliii, cxliv.

114. This book was sold at SOTHEBY'S on 15 April 1930, t0 QUARITCH, from whom it seems to have passed that same year to CHAMONAL of Paris. In SOTHEBY'S Catalogue, p. 46, No. 300, it is thus described : " MARCO POLO. Marci Pauli de Venetiis de consuetudinibus Orientalium regionum libri III, MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM, 77 II. finely written in a cursive hand in black and red, initials in blue and red, the first enclosing a curious drawing of a leopard or similar animal, some slight worm holes in the first ten leaves, at the end of book I occurs the following colophon; `De potentia et magnificentia Regis maximi Tartarorum liber secundus Incipitur capitulo Primo modo transcripto Apud Wesmeter anno dni 7530,' inscription on fly leaf in an old law hand: `Liber Johis brereton juris doctor,' on the blank verso of the last leaf an astronomical table and other matter has been added at the end of the XVI Century, contemporary stamped calf over oak boards, worn and worm

holed   XVI CENT.
Professor PELLIOT, who saw the book in Paris, read the name of the former owner breyarson (?), and it appears as bregston in CHAMONAL'S catalogue, where it is also noted that Beckford. Dunsland is written in a modern hand on the first page of the text, and Beckford.Dunsland-Devon on the back of the last leaf.

125. This occupies 116 leaves in a volume called Viaggiatori Veneti, which contains Alvise da Mosto, Pietro Querini, Ambrogio Contarini, Cattarina Zeno, Zeni fratelli, & Josafa Barbaro, and Marco Polo, all copied from the printed texts of RAMUS1o's Navigationi et Viaggi. The text of Marco Polo appears to be an exact copy of the third edition, 1583.

126. This was formerly No. 7378 in the Phillipps Collection. In SOTHEBY'S Catalogue of the Phillipps Sale (for 19 May 1897) p. 64, No. 499, it is described as : Marco Polo, Viaggi di Marco Polo, Gios. Barbaro, Pietro Fermo, Amb. Contarini, Alb. Compense, Piero Quirini, etc. Important MS. brought to England by the Earl of Guilford, with his bookplate. 4to. It contains important notes on Marco Polo and the explanations of G. B. Ramusio. . . . "Georgio Interiano della Vita de Zychi chiamati i circassi in Sarmatia. At the end it is stated this narrative was sent to the elder Aldus, but appears not to have been printed. Several other pieces." Interiano was in fact printed, with a dedication by the younger Aldus, by T. Giunti in Navigat. et Viaggi, vol. 2, 1559, fol. 140D - 142E. The book was sold in 1897 for fi. i s.

133. This volume formerly belonged to Petrus BONDAM, whose library was sold at Utrecht on 1 October 1800; and afterwards to Francis Sharp POWELL Baronet, Horton Old Hall, Bradford, Yorkshire, whose library was sold at SOTHEBY'S on 16 December 1929, when this book was bought by W. TREGASKIS for f44 and soon afterwards passed through the hands of Lathrop C. HARPER of New York to the present owner, William Gordon KELSO

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