97 POLO, Marco. Two 14th-century manuscript leaves containing seven chapters of Marco Polo’s Il Milione , including his description of Tibet. [Italy: c.1350] “one of the most influential books of the past millennium” Truly rare manuscript fragments of one of the most significant and resonant travel accounts in the history of human endeavour, written within a generation of Marco Polo’s death and containing the text that most closely corresponds to the now-lost original manuscript. Besides the complete account appearing in the 14th- century Courtenay Compendium sold at Sotheby’s in 2008, this serendipitous survival is the only Marco Polo manuscript traced in commerce since 1930. These two vellum leaves were discovered as pastedowns in a different work, the identity of which is now not known. The recto of the first leaf begins with the concluding nine lines (about half the text) of Ronchi’s chapter 112 (Yule’s chapter 42 of book II), with the entireties of Ronchi’s chapters 113 to 117 (Yule: book II, chapters 43 to 47) following across the two leaves. The verso of the final leaf contains the first 21 lines – about one quarter – of Ronchi’s chapter 118 (Yule: book II, chapter 48). In these chapters, Polo describes his travels through Cuncun (Hanzhong), Acbalec Manzi (the Han River valley and north Sichuan), Sindafu, Caindu, and Carajan. He discusses the nature, qualities, and topography of the land through which he travelled, the people he encountered, and their customs, habits, and manners, as well as their methods of commerce, religion, courtship, and government. Most importantly, two of the chapters found here give Polo’s description of Tibet, the first description of the region by a European. Polo discusses Tibet’s large cane plants and the residents’ habit of burning the plants, which make a very loud sound when burned, to keep wild animals away. He then goes on to describe the mating and marriage rituals of the Tibetans. Finally, he relates how gold dust is found in great abundance in the region’s rivers and lakes, that cinnamon and other spices grow there plentifully, and that the Tibetans covet coral, which is hung around the necks of women and religious idols. Marco Polo (1254–1324) was born into a prominent Venetian trading family. In 1271 he departed eastwards with his father and uncle, travelling through Syria, Jerusalem, Turkey, Persia, and India, to China and the court of Kublai Khan. Marco Polo became a favourite of the Khan and journeyed throughout China over the next fifteen years as his emissary. Polo returned to Venice in 1295, only to be briefly imprisoned in Genoa a few years later; in 1298, during this imprisonment, he dictated his adventures to Rusticiano (also called Rustichello) of Pisa, and the resulting account became known as Il Milione . The original text was written in Franco-Italic, the language present here, and was quickly translated into Latin and other languages by court clerks. The first printed edition was made in Nuremberg in 1477, followed by a Latin translation, a copy of which was kept by Christopher Columbus in his library. The original manuscript (referred to as the “F” text) of Polo’s adventures as narrated to Rusticiano has not survived. An early 14th- century version of this “F” text is held by the Bibliothèque Nationale in France (BNF ms. fr. 1116, also known as the “Geographic Text”), and it is believed that most Franco-Italic redactions are based on this copy. The present leaves of Polo’s text correspond, with some very minor variations, to the text as reproduced by Ronchi, and therefore represent Polo’s manuscript as it was transmitted in its earliest form. The leaves have been examined by three eminent palaeographers, including: Albert Derolez, formerly Curator of
Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Library of the State University of Ghent; Paul Saenger, Curator of Rare Books at the Newberry Library in Chicago; and Consuelo Dutschke, Curator of Medieval Manuscripts at Columbia University Library. Based on the script and the decoration of the initials, all three agree that the manuscript was created in Italy c .1350. Overall, an extraordinary treasure and one of the few Marco Polo manuscripts known outside institutional collections,
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