Note 120 — GOMES EANNES DE AZURARA; (continued 3)

(p. 146). Marco Polo.—[Azurara, writing this chronicle before 1453, availed himself of a manuscript of the travels of Marco Polo, perhaps the same as the copy which the Infant Don Pedro brought from Venice. The oldest printed edition is of 1484. This book, which exercised great influence on discovery, was not only read in the beginning of the fifteenth century by our learned men, but we may notice that one of the most ancient translations which exists of the same is in Portuguese, published by Valentim Fernandez, with the journey of Nicholas the Venetian, etc., dedicated to the King Don Manuel, Lisbon, 1502, one volume, in folio gothic, a copy of which exists in the public library of Lisbon.]—S. Azurara's reference here is to Marco Polo, ch. lvii (Bk. i); ch. lxxiii (Bk. ii). On Valentim Fernandez and the bibliography of the Machin story, see Introduction to vol. ii, p. lxxxiv-v. On the editions of Marco Polo, see Yule's edition, Introduction; Pauthier, Le Livre de M. P.