cesca of Rimini, was not one of those _expurgated_ by our worthy
friend Rustician![11]

[Sidenote: Identity of the Romance Compiler with Polo's fellow-prisoner.]

41. A question may still occur to an attentive reader as to the identity
of this Romance-compiler Rusticien de Pise with the Messire _Rustacians de
Pise_, of a solitary MS. of Polo's work (though the oldest and most
authentic), a name which appears in other copies as _Rusta Pisan, Rasta
Pysan, Rustichelus Civis Pisanus, Rustico, Restazio da Pisa, Stazio da
Pisa_, and who is stated in the preamble to have acted as the Traveller's
scribe at Genoa.

M. Pauthier indeed[12] asserts that the French of the MS. Romances of
Rusticien de Pise is of the same barbarous character as that of the early
French MS. of Polo's Book to which we have just alluded, and which we
shall show to be the nearest presentation of the work as originally
dictated by the Traveller. The language of the latter MS. is so peculiar
that this would be almost perfect evidence of the identity of the writers,
if it were really the fact. A cursory inspection which I have made of two
of those MSS. in Paris, and the extracts which I have given and am about
to give, do not, however, by any means support M. Pauthier's view. Nor
would that view be consistent with the judgment of so competent an
authority as Paulin Paris, implied in his calling Rustician a _nom
recommandable_ in old French literature, and his speaking of him as
"versed in the secrets of the French Romance Tongue."[13] In fact the
difference of language in the two cases would really be a difficulty in
the way of identification, if there were room for doubt. This, however,
Paulin Paris seems to have excluded finally, by calling attention to the
peculiar formula of preamble which is common to the Book of Marco Polo and
to one of the Romance compilations of Rusticien de Pise.

The former will be found in English at pp. 1, 2, of our Translation; but
we give a part of the original below[14] for comparison with the preamble
to the Romances of Meliadus, Tristan, and Lancelot, as taken from MS. 6961
(Fr. 340) of the Paris Library:--

"_Seigneurs Empereurs et Princes, Ducs et Contes et Barons et Chevaliers
et Vavasseurs et Bourgeois, et tous les preudommes de cestui monde qui
avez talent de vous deliter en rommans, si prenez cestui (livre) et le
faites lire de chief en chief, si orrez toutes les grans aventure_ qui
advindrent entre les C