Volume 1

The book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian : concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East / translated and edited, with notes, by Colonel Sir Henry Yule.

  • Marco Polo
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian : concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East / translated and edited, with notes, by Colonel Sir Henry Yule. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    has been some excision, but the additions visibly and palpably preponderate. The truth is that since the completion of the first edition, just four years ago, lar^e additions have been made to the stock of our knowledge bearing on the subjects of this Book ; and how these additions have continued to come in up to the last moment, may be seen in Appendix L,* which has had to undergo repeated interpolation after being put in type. Karakorum, for a brief space the seat of the widest empire the world has known, has been visited; the ruins of Shang-tu, the “Xanadu of Cublay Khan,” have been explored ; Pamir and Tangut have been penetrated from side to side ; the famous mountain Road of Shen-si has been traversed and described ; the mysterious Caindu has been unveiled ; the publi- cation of my lamented friend Lieutenant Garnier’s great work on the French Exploration of Indo-China has provided a mass of illustration of that Yun-nan for which but the other clay Marco Polo was well-nigh the most recent authority. Nay, the last two years have thrown a promise of light even on what seemed the wildest of Marcos stories, and the bones of a veritable Rue from New Zealand lie on the table of Professor Owen’s Cabinet ! M. Vivien de St. Martin, during: the interval of 7 o which we have been speaking, has published a History of Geography. In treating of Marco Polo, he alludes to the first edition of this work, most evidently with no intention of disparagement, but speaks of it as merely a revision of Marsden’s Book. The last thing I should allow myself to do would be to apply to a * [Merged into the notes of the present edition,—II. C.]