Asia -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Mongols -- History; Polo, Marco, 1254-1323?; Voyages and travels
Kaikhátú Kaan appears in the Pauthier MSS. as _Chiato_, in the Pipinian
as _Acatu_, in the Ramusian as _Chiacato. All three forms_, Chiato,
Achatu, and Quiacatu _are found in the Geographic Text_.
The city of Koh-banan appears in the Pauthier MSS. as _Cabanant_, in
the Pipinian and Ramusian editions as _Cobinam_ or _Cobinan_. _Both
forms are found in the Geographic Text_.
The city of the Great Kaan (Khanbalig) is called in the Pauthier MSS.
_Cambaluc_, in the Pipinian and Ramusian less correctly _Cambalu_.
_Both forms appear in the Geographic Text_.
The aboriginal People on the Burmese Frontier who received from the
Western officers of the Mongols the Persian name (translated from that
applied by the Chinese) of _Zardandán_, or Gold-Teeth, appear in the
Pauthier MSS. most accurately as Zardandan, but in the Pipinian as
_Ardandan_ (still further corrupted in some copies into _Arcladam_).
Now _both forms are found in the Geographic Text_. Other examples might
be given, but these I think may suffice to prove that this Text was the
common source of both classes.
In considering the question of the French original too we must remember
what has been already said regarding Rusticien de Pise and his other
French writings; and we shall find hereafter an express testimony borne
in the next generation that Marco’s Book was composed _in vulgari
Gallico_.
[Sidenote: Greatly diffused employment of French in that age.]
54. But, after all, the circumstantial evidence that has been adduced
from the texts themselves is the most conclusive. We have then every
reason to believe both that the work was written in French, and that
an existing French Text is a close representation of it as originally
committed to paper. And that being so we may cite some circumstances
to show that the use of French or quasi-French for the purpose was not
a fact of a very unusual or surprising nature. The French language had
at that time almost as wide, perhaps relatively a wider, diffusion than
it has now. It was still spoken at the Court of England, and still
used by many English writers, of whom the authors or translators of
the Round Table Romances at Henry III.’s Court are examples.[7] In
1249 Alexander III. King of Scotland, at his coronation spoke in Latin
and French; and in 1291 the English Chancellor addressing the Scotch
Parliament did so in French. At certain of the Oxford Colleges as late
as 1328 it was an order that the students should converse _colloquio
latino vel saltem gallico_.[8] Late in the same century Gower had not
ceased to use French, composing many poems in it, though apologizing
for his want of skill therein:—
“Et si jeo nai de François la faconde
* * * *
Jeo suis Englois; si quier par tiele voie
Estre excusé.”[9]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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