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| 0664 |
The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Dutch,* and Italian† editions, and after the English editions of Pynson and
Wynkin de Worde.
In what tongue was Mandeville's Book written?
The fact that the first edition of it was printed either in German or in Dutch,
only shows that the scientific progress was greater and printing more active in such
towns as Basel, Nuremberg and Augsburg than in others. At first, one might believe
that there were three original texts, probably in French, English, and vulgar Latin;
the Dean of Tongres, Radulphus of Rivo, a native of Breda, writes indeed in his
Gesta Pontificum Leodiensium, 1616, p. 17: "Hoc anno Ioannes Mandeuliius
natione Anglus vir ingenio, & arte medendi eminens, qui toto fere terrarum orbe
peragrato, tribus linguis peregrinationem suam doctissime conscripsit, in allum orbè
nullis finibus clausum, logeque hoc quietiorem, & beatiorem migravit 17.
Nouembris. Sepultus in Ecclesia Wilhelmitarum non procul à moenibus Ciuitatis
Leodiensis." The Dean of Tongres died in 1483; ‡ Mr. Warner, on the authority
of the Bulletin de l'Inst. Archéol. Liégeois, xvi. 1882, p. 358, gives 1403 as the date of
the death of Radulphus. However, Mandeville himself says (Warner, Harley, 4383)
at the end of his introduction, p. 3:—"Et sachez qe ieusse cest escript mis en latyn
par plus briefment deuiser; mes, per ceo qe plusours entendent mieltz romantz qe latin,
ieo lay mys en romance, pur ceo qe chescun lentende et luy chiuaiers et les seignurs
et lez autres nobles homes qi ne scient point de latin ou poy, et qount estee outre
meer, sachent et entendent, si ieo dye voir ou noun, et si ieo erre en deuisant par
noun souenance ou autrement, qils le puissent adresser et amender, qar choses de
long temps passez par la veue tornent en obly, et memorie de homme ne puet
mye tot retenir ne comprendre." From this passage and from the Latin text:
"Incipit itinerarius a terra Angliæ ad partes Iherosolitanas et in ulteriores
transmarinas, editus primo in lingua gallicana a milite suo autore anno incarnacionis
Domini m. ccc. lv, in civitate Leodiensi, et paulo post in eadem civitate translatus in
hanc formam latinam." (P. 33 of the Relation des Mongols ou Tartars par le frère
Jean du Plan de Carpin, Paris, 1838). D'Avezac long ago was inclined to believe in
an unique French version. The British Museum, English MS. (Cott., Titus. C.
xvi.), on the other hand, has in the Prologue (cf. ed. 1725, p. 6): "And zee schulle
undirstonde, that I have put this Boke out of Latyn into Frensche, and translated
it azen out of Frensche into Englyssche, that every Man of my Nacioun may undir-
stonde it . . ."§
But we shall see that—without taking into account the important passage in
French quoted above, and probably misunderstood by the English translator—
the English version, a sentence of which, not to be found in the Latin manuscripts,
has just been given, is certainly posterior to the French text, and therefore that the
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731
732
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