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The Travels by Marco Polo

2016; University of Hawaii Press; Volume: 21; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/cri.2016.0058

1527-9367

Stephen G. Haw,

Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics

Reviewed by: The Travels by Marco Polo Stephen G. Haw (bio) Marco Polo. The Travels. Translated with an introduction and notes by Nigel Cliff. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 2015. li, 417 pp. Hardcover $24.00, isbn 978-0-141-19877-4. Great advances have been made in studies of Marco Polo during the past few decades. A new translation of The Travels (originally Le divisement dou monde, “The Description of the World”) in the Penguin Classics series therefore undoubtedly fills a need. The previous translation in the series, by Ronald Latham, was first published more than fifty years ago, in 1958, and has become somewhat dated. It is gratifying to be able to say that this new translation, taking note, as it does, of most of the recent scholarship on Marco Polo, is a considerable improvement. Although aimed primarily at a popular audience, it is in fact more or less a scholarly edition, with a lengthy introduction, maps, a chronology, an appendix indicating passages taken from manuscripts (and Ramusio’s edition) other than the manuscript principally used as the basis of the translation, and a limited number of notes. The translation is excellent. The English is clear and modern but preserves the flavor of the original. The basic text used, the manuscript kept in the French National Library usually known as F, has long been recognized to be a “good” version. The translator, Nigel Cliff, has supplemented it with a significant amount of material from other manuscripts, mainly the Zelada MS (Z) kept in Toledo, and from [End Page 23] Ramusio’s early Italian edition. Following Moule and Pelliot, Cliff refers to F as being written in Franco-Italian. I personally consider this misleading, as it suggests that the language of the manuscript is fundamentally Italian. It is, however, medieval French, although with noticeable Italian influence. Latham referred to it as “Italianate French,” which is by no means a bad description. I am of course pleased to find myself referred to by Cliff as author of Marco Polo’s China, and even more pleased that he seems to have accepted virtually all of my identifications of Chinese toponyms. It is unfortunate that the maps are not always very accurate. This is particularly true of the map of Marco’s route “from Beijing to Bengal, 1275–1291,” which places Shanxi Province on the wrong side of the Yellow River, misspells Sichuan (“Sichaun”), and has several towns some distance from their correct location. To cite but two examples, Xi’an should be farther north and west, and Dali is much too close to the Yangtze River. Moreover, the maps show the Yellow River flowing into the Yangtze. Some water from the Yellow River probably did reach the Yangtze, but, at the time, the main flow entered the sea via the Huai. The maps are undoubtedly helpful, but it is a pity that a little more attention was not bestowed upon them. One of my identifications of toponyms that Cliff has rejected is Xizhou 熙州 (now Lintao 臨洮 in southern Gansu Province). In the majority of the most important manuscripts (including F), the name is written “Singiu,” “Singui,” or “Singuy.” Cliff accepts the old identification of this place as Xiningzhou 西寧州. However, there is only one manuscript that includes a form close to this name, and that is Z, which gives a single occurrence of “Silingui,” but also once has “Singui.” The identification cannot be correct, for Xining is in the wrong place. It is not on, or even very near, any route from Ganzhou 甘州 and “Erguiul” (Wuwei 武威) into China, whereas Xizhou is. The description of the products of the area also fits Xizhou very well, but not Xining. It is particularly significant that Xizhou was noted for its musk, as Marco emphasizes: “This country produces the choicest and finest musk in the world” (p. 77). Xizhou did indeed produce musk, as is noted in such Chinese geographical works as the Yuan-period Da Yuan hunyi fangyu shenglan 大元混一方輿勝覽 and the Ming-period Shaanxi tong zhi 陝西通志. The Song shi 宋史 (juan 卷 87) states that Xizhou presented musk as tribute to the imperial court, but there is no record of musk from Xining. Since none of the routes described...