Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

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information on this subject to Pliny, Aristotle, Strabo and
the ' Specula' of Vincent of Beauvais.1 The last,
however, merely copied Isidor, whilst the others named
did not believe in these monstrosities.

Marco Pofo.2

If the reader examines Map 2, where the information
derived from Marco Polo is printed in red, he cannot fail
to be struck by the extent to which the author of the
globe is indebted to the greatest among mediaeval
travellers. Accounts, in MS., of Polo's travels in Latin,
French, Italian and German, were available at the time
the globe was making at Nuremberg, as also three printed
editions. The earliest of these, in German, had appeared
in 1477 at Nuremberg ;3 a Latin version, from a translation
made by Friar Francisco Pipino of Bologna in 1320, had
been published at Antwerp in 1485 ;4 and an Italian
version printed at Venice by Z. Bapt. da Sessa in 1486.
Neither the German nor the Italian version is divided into
books and chapters. Pipino's Latin version, on the other
hand, is divided in this manner, and Behaim in seven of
his legends quotes these divisions correctly. We should
"naturally conclude from this that this was the version
consulted if on other occasions he had not quoted the
chapters as given in the version which was first printed in
Ramusio's ' Navigationi e viaggi' in 1559.5 If we add
that many proper names are spelt sometimes according
to Pipino's version and at others according to that
of Ramusio, and that in several instances names are
inserted twice upon the globe and separated by hundreds
of miles, we may fairly conclude that we have not before us
an original compilation, but an uncritical combination of
two separate maps designed to illustrate Marco Polo's
travels, whose authors, not being skilled cartographers,
differed widely as to the localisation of the places visited
or described by the Venetian traveller. Two instances of
this duplication of place names may be referred to. Bangala,
the well-known province at the mouth of the Ganges, is
placed once in the very centre of Cathai (K 43) and a
second time to the east of the Indus (G 15), both positions
being absolutely erroneous. Vocan (Wakhan) likewise
appears twice, once in Bactriana (G 39) (which is fairly
correct), and a second time to the east of the Ganges (H 26).
Instances of such duplication might be multiplied.

1 Vincent of Beauvais, a learned Dominican, and tutor of Prince Philip,
the son of Louis IX., was born before 1194. He died in 1264.

3 Marco Polo was born 1250. He left Venice with his father and
uncle in 1271. The three travellers returned to Venice in 1295. Marco
Polo dictated a narrative of his travels whilst a prisoner of war at Genoa.
He died in 1324.

3 ' Hie hebt sich an das puch des edeln Hitters vn landtfarers
Marcho Polo,' Nuremberg (F. Creuszner), 1477.

4 'Incipit prologus in Libro domini marci pauli,' Antwerp (G. de
Leeu), 1485. A 3rd edition of Yule's 'Marco Polo,' by H. Cordier,
appeared in 1903.

5 Giambattista Ramusio, the learned editor of these ' Navigationi,' was
born in 1486 and died in 1557. He was engaged upon his great work from
1523 to his death, but only its first volume was published in his lifetime.

Marco Polo's Routes plotted.

I have thought it worth while to plot the routes
travelled or described by Marco Polo in order to exhibit at
a glance the seriously incorrect delineation of Eastern
Asia on Behaim's globe, and in the maps of his contemporaries
and successors, whose authors may have been
" men of science," but who certainly were most incompetent
cartographers.

In plotting Marco Polo's routes I start from Ormus
(Armuza). I accept Ptolemy's latitude for that place
(23° 30'), but not his longitude. Assuming the Straits of
Gibraltar (Herculeum Fretum) to lie four degrees to the
east of Lisbon, the meridian difference between the Straits
and Beirut to amount to 41 degrees, as warranted by the
examination of the Portolano charts, Beirut would be
situated in longitude 45° east of Lisbon. Adding
28 degrees for the difference of longitude between Beirut
and Ormus (according to Ptolemy), I locate the latter
73 degrees to the east of Lisbon.

Starting from Ormus I plotted the routes of Marco
Polo, as described in his narrative, as carefully as possible,
and without allowing myself to be biased by information
brought home by earlier or later travellers. Twenty
Roman miles have been allowed for each day's land
journey, and the result is shown on Map 3. A comparison
of this sketch with Behaim's globe, or indeed with
other maps of the period, even including Schoner's globe of
1520,6 shows clearly that a much nearer approach to a
correct representation to the actual countries of Eastern
Asia could have been secured had these early cartographers
taken the trouble to consult the account which Marco
Polo gave of his travels. India would have stood out
distinctly as a large peninsula. Ceylon though unduly
magnified would have occupied its correct position, and the
huge peninsula beyond Ptolemy's " Furthest," a duplicated
or bogus India,7 would have disappeared, and place names
in that peninsula, and even beyond it, such as Murfuli,
Maabar, Lac or Lar, Cael, Var, Coulam, Cumari, Dely,
Cambaia, Servenath, Chesmakoran and Bangala would have
occupied approximately correct sites in Polo's India maior.

Marco Polo's account is perfectly clear as to the
peninsular shape of India. Already at Pentam and Java
minor he had lost sight of the Pole star, which proves that
he then believed himself to be near the Equator, if not to
the south of it. He then takes a westerly course to
Maabar, sails for 500 miles to the south-west, doubles the
southern extremity of India, and once more perceives the
Pole Star when 30 miles beyond Cumari. Following
the coast in a north-westerly direction, the star rises higher
and higher, its altitude, at Guzurat, being already six cubits.

The islands which extend from Madagascar eastward

6 And even the world maps of such distinguished geographers as
Petrus Apianus (1540) and Simon Grynaeus (1532). Schoner was content
to copy Waldseemuller's map of 1507.

7 This duplicated India includes, in fact, India proper, the Malay
peninsula (Aurea chersonesus or Chryse) and Indo-China.