Text is based, and for which he claims the highest authority, as having
had the mature revision and sanction of the Traveller. There are, as
far as I know, five MSS. which may be classed together under this type,
three in the Great Paris Library, one at Bern, and one in the Bodleian.
The high claims made by Pauthier on behalf of this class of MSS. (on
the first three of which his Text is formed) rest mainly upon the kind
of certificate which two of them bear regarding the presentation of a
copy by Marco Polo to Thibault de Cepoy, which we have already quoted
(_supra_, p. _69_). This certificate is held by Pauthier to imply that
the original of the copies which bear it, and of those having a general
correspondence with them, had the special seal of Marco’s revision and
approval. To some considerable extent their character is corroborative
of such a claim, but they are far from having the perfection which
Pauthier attributes to them, and which leads him into many paradoxes.
It is not possible to interpret rigidly the bearing of this so-called
certificate, as if no copies had previously been taken of _any_ form
of the Book; nor can we allow it to impugn the authenticity of the
Geographic Text, which demonstratively represents an older original,
and has been (as we have seen) the parent of all other versions,
including some very old ones, Italian and Latin, which certainly owe
nothing to this revision.
The first idea apparently entertained by d’Avezac and Paulin Paris was
that the Geographic Text was _itself_ the copy given to the Sieur de
Cepoy, and that the differences in the copies of the class which we
describe as Type II. merely resulted from the modifications which would
naturally arise in the process of transcription into purer French.
But closer examination showed the differences to be too great and too
marked to admit of this explanation. These differences consist not
only in the conversion of the rude, obscure, and half Italian language
of the original into good French of the period. There is also very
considerable curtailment, generally of tautology, but also extending
often to circumstances of substantial interest; whilst we observe the
omission of a few notably erroneous statements or expressions; and a
few insertions of small importance. None of the MSS. of this class
contain more than a few of the historical chapters which we have formed
into Book IV.
The only _addition_ of any magnitude is that chapter which in our
translation forms chapter xxi. of Book II. It will be seen that
it contains no new facts, but is only a tedious recapitulation of
circumstances already stated, though scattered over several chapters.
There are a few minor additions. I have not thought it worth while to
collect them systematically here, but two or three examples are given
in a note.[3]
There are also one or two corrections of erroneous statements in the
G. T. which seem not to be accidental and to indicate some attempt at
revision. Thus a notable error in the account of Aden, which seems to
conceive of the Red Sea as a _river_, disappears in Pauthier’s MSS.
A and B.[4] And we find in these MSS. one or two interesting names
preserved which are not found in the older Text.[5]
But on the other hand this class of MSS. contains many erroneous
readings of names, either adopting the worse of two forms occurring in
the G. T. or originating blunders of its own.[6]
M. Pauthier lays great stress on the character of these MSS. as
the sole authentic form of the work, from their claim to have been
specially revised by Marco Polo. It is evident, however, from what has
been said, that this revision can have been only a very careless and
superficial one, and must have been done in great measure by deputy,
being almost entirely confined to curtailment and to the improvement of
the expression, and that it is by no means such as to allow an editor
to dispense with a careful study of the Older Text.
[Sidenote: The Bern MS. and two others form a sub-class of this Type.]