Note 2 — PREFACE.

: Colonel Yule, in "The Book of Ser Marco Polo," &c. (1871), says:—"And from the great frequency with which one encounters in catalogues both MSS. and early printed editions of Sir John Maundeville, I should suppose that the lying wonders of our English knight had a far greater popularity and more extensive diffusion than the veracious and more sober marvels of Polo. In Quaritch's last catalogue (November, 1870) there is only one old edition of Polo; there are nine of Maundeville. In 1839 there were nineteen MSS. of the latter catalogued in the British Museum Library. There are now only five of Marco Polo. At least twenty-five editions of Maundeville, and only five of Polo were printed in the fifteenth century."