The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano

explanation of the origin of this text seems to me to be some such hypothesis as the following:—I suppose that Polo in his latter years added with his own hand supplementary notes and reminiscences, marginally or otherwise, to a copy of his book; that these, perhaps in his lifetime, more probably after his death, were digested and translated into Latin;[18] and that Ramusio, or some friend of his, in retranslating and fusing them with Pipino’s version for the _Navigationi_, made those minor modifications in names and other matters which we have already noticed. The mere facts of digestion from memoranda and double translation would account for a good deal of unintentional corruption. That more than one version was employed in the composition of Ramusio’s edition we have curious proof in at least one passage of the latter. We have pointed out at p. 410 of this volume a curious example of misunderstanding of the old French Text, a passage in which the term _Roi des Pelaines_, or “King of Furs,” is applied to the Sable, and which in the Crusca has been converted into an imaginary Tartar phrase _Leroide pelame_, or as Pipino makes it _Rondes_ (another indication that Pipino’s Version and the Crusca passed through a common medium). But Ramusio exhibits _both_ the true reading and the perversion: “_E li Tartari la chiamano_ Regina delle pelli” (there is the true reading), “_E gli animali si chiamano_ Rondes” (and there the perverted one). We may further remark that Ramusio’s version betrays indications that one of its bases either was in the Venetian dialect, or had passed through that dialect; for a good many of the names appear in Venetian forms, _e.g._, substituting the _z_ for the sound of _ch_, _j_, or soft _g_, as in _Goza_, _Zorzania_, _Zagatay_, _Gonza_ (for Giogiu), _Quenzanfu_, _Coiganzu_, _Tapinzu_, _Zipangu_, _Ziamba_. [Sidenote: Summary in regard to Text of Polo.]