spigo, e cardamomo,
Giengiovo, e cennamomo;
E altre molte spezie,
Ciascuna in sua spezie,
E migliore, e piu fina,
E sana in medicina.
Appresso in questo loco
Mise in assetto loco
Li tigri, e li grifoni,
Leofanti, e leoni
Cammelli, e dragomene,
Badalischi, e gene,
E pantere, e castoro,
Le formiche dell' oro,
E tanti altri animali,
Ch' io non so ben dir quail,
Che son si divisati,
E si dissomigliati
Di corpo e di fazione,
Di si fera ragione,
E di si strana taglia,
Ch'io non credo san faglia,
Ch' alcun uomo vivente
Potesse veramente
Per lingua, o per scritture
Recitar le figure
Delle bestie, e gli uccelli....

--From _Il Tesoretto di Ser Brunetto Latini_ (circa MDCCLX.).
(_Florence_, 1824, pp. 83 seqq.)

[Illustration]

[Greek:
Andra moi hennepe, Mousa, polytropon, hos mala polla
Plagchthae . . . . . . .
Pollon d' anthropon iden astea kai noon egno].

_Odyssey_, I.

--"I AM BECOME A NAME;
FOR ALWAYS ROAMING WITH A HUNGRY HEART
MUCH HAVE I SEEN AND KNOWN; CITIES OF MEN,
AND MANNERS, CLIMATES, COUNCILS, GOVERNMENTS,
MYSELF NOT LEAST, BUT HONOURED OF THEM ALL."

TENNYSON.

"A SEDER CI PONEMMO IVI AMBODUI
VOLTI A LEVANTE, OND' ERAVAM SALITI;
CHE SUOLE A RIGUARDAR GIOVARE ALTRUI."

DANTE, _Purgatory_, IV.

[Illustration: Messer Marco Polo, with Messer Nicolo and Messer Maffeo,
returned from xxvi years' sojourn in the Orient, is denied entrance to the
Ca' Polo. (See _Int._ p. 4)]

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

DEDICATION

NOTE BY MISS YULE

PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

ORIGINAL PREFACE

ORIGINAL DEDICATION

MEMOIR OF SIR HENRY YULE BY AMY FRANCES YULE, L.A.SOC. ANT. SCOT.

A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SIR HENRY YULE'S WRITINGS

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I.

INTRODUCTORY NOTICES

THE BOOK OF MARCO POLO.

NOTE BY MISS YULE

I desire to take this opportunity of recording my grateful sense of the
unsparing labour, learning, and devotion, with which my father's valued
friend, Professor Henri Cordier, has performed the difficult and delicate
task which I entrusted to his lo