Marco Polo

We know from Gilles Mallet's catalogue of the books collected in the Louvre by Charles V., dating c. 137o- 75, that five copies of Marco Polo's work were then in the collection ; but on the other hand, the 202 known mss. and the numerous early printed editions of "Mandeville," with his lying wonders, indicates a much greater popularity. Dante, who lived twenty-three years after the book was dictated, never alludes to Polo ; nor can any trace of Polo be discovered in the book of his contemporary, Marino Sanudo the Elder, though he is well acquainted with the work of Hayton the Armenian. "Mandeville" himself, who plundered right and left, hardly ever plunders Polo. The only literary works we know of the 14th century which show acquaintance with Polo's book or achievements are Pipino's Chronicle, Villani's Florentine History, Pietro d'Abano's Conciliator, the Chronicle of John of Ypres, and the poetical romance of Baudouin de Sebouro.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-The

Recueil of the Paris Geographical Society (1824), vol. i., giving the text of the fundamental ms. (Nat. Libr. Paris, Fr. 1116 ; see above) , as well as that of the oldest Latin version; G. Pauthier's edition, Livre . . . de Marco Polo . . . (Paris, 1865), based mainly upon the three Paris mss. (Nat. Libr. Fr. 281o; Fr. 5631; Fr. 5649 ; see above) and accompanied by a commentary of great value ; Baldelli-Boni's Italian edition, giving the oldest Italian version (Florence, 1827) ; Sir Henry Yule's edition, which in its final shape, as revised and augmented by Henri Cordier (. . . Marco Polo . . . Lon

don, 1903), is the most complete storehouse of Polo learning in exist ence, embodying the labours of all the best students of the subject, and giving the essence of such works as those of Major P. Molesworth Sykes (Ten Thousand Miles in Persia, etc.) so far as these touch Marco Polo ; the Archimandrite Palladius Katharov's "Elucidations of Marco Polo" from vol. x. of the Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1876), pp. 1-54; F. von Richthofen, Letters to Shangai Chamber of Commerce; E. C. Baber, Travels . . . in Western China; G. Phillips, Identity of . . . Zaitun with Changchau in T'oung Pao (Oct. 189o), and other studies in T'oung Pao (Dec. 1895 and July 1896). There are in all io French editions of Polo as well as 4 Latin editions, 27 Italian, 9 German, 4 Spanish, 1 Portuguese, 12 English, 2 Russian, I Dutch, I Bohemian (Czech), I Danish and 1 Swedish. See also E. Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources, i. 239, 167; ii. 8, 71, 85-84, 184 ; Leon Cahun, Introduction a l'histoire de l'Asie, 339, 386 ; C. Raymond Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, iii. 15-160, 554, 556-563 ; R. Allulli, Marco Polo (1923). (H. Y.; X.)