. The book of Ser Marco Polo : the Venetian concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East . ysijj * See Muratori, IX. 583, seqq. ; Bianconi, Mem. I. p. 37. t This Friar makes a strange hotch-potch of what he had read, : The Tartars,when they came out of the mountains, made them a king, viz., the son of FresterJohn, who is thus vulgarly termed Vctuhis de la Montagna ! (Mon. Hist. III. 1557.) % G. Villani died in the great plague of 1348. But his book was begun soon afterMarcos was written, for he states that it was the sight of the memorials of greatnesswhich he witnessed at
. The book of Ser Marco Polo : the Venetian concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East . ysijj * See Muratori, IX. 583, seqq. ; Bianconi, Mem. I. p. 37. t This Friar makes a strange hotch-potch of what he had read, : The Tartars,when they came out of the mountains, made them a king, viz., the son of FresterJohn, who is thus vulgarly termed Vctuhis de la Montagna ! (Mon. Hist. III. 1557.) % G. Villani died in the great plague of 1348. But his book was begun soon afterMarcos was written, for he states that it was the sight of the memorials of greatnesswhich he witnessed at Rome, during the Jubilee of 1300, that put it into his head towrite the history of the rising glories of Florence, and that he began the work afterhis return home. (Bk. VIII. ch. 36.) § Book V. ch. 29. || Petri Aponensis Medici ac Philosophi Celeberrimi, Conciliator, Venice, 1521,fol. 97. Peter was born in 1250 at Abano, near Tadua, and was Professor ofMedicine at the University in the latter city. He twice fell into the claws of theUnholy Office, and only escaped them by death in 120 INTRODUCTION In the country of the ZiNGHi there is seen a star as big as a sack. I know a man who has seen it, and hetold me it had a faint light like a pieceof a cloud, and is always In the south.*I have been told of this and othermatters by Marco the Venetian, themost extensive traveller and the mostdiligent inquirer whom I have everknown. He saw this same star underthe Antarctic; he described it ashaving a great tail, and drew a figure Star at the Antarctic as sketched of lt ^IUS- He also told me that he by Marco Polo (t). saw the Antarctic Pole at an altitude above the earth apparently equal to thelength of a soldiers lance, whilst the Arctic Pole was as much below thehorizon. Tis from that place, he says, that they export to us camphor,lign-aloes, and brazil. He says the heat there is intense, and the habita-tions few. And these things he witnessed in a certain island at which hearri
Size: 1641px × 1522px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectvoyagesandtravels
