ears of
Polo's life.[10] But I can see no ground for the idea entertained by
Baldelli-Boni and Professor Bianconi that it was executed with Polo's
cognizance and retouched by him.

[Sidenote: The Latin of Grynaeus a translation at fifth hand.]

59. The absence of effective publication in the Middle Ages led to a
curious complication of translation and retranslation. Thus the Latin
version published by Grynaeus in the _Novus Orbis_ (Basle, 1532) is
different from Pipino's, and yet clearly traceable to it as a base. In
fact it is a retranslation into Latin from some version (Marsden thinks
the printed Portuguese one) of Pipino. It introduces many minor
modifications, omitting specific statements of numbers and values,
generalizing the names and descriptions of specific animals, exhibiting
frequent sciolism and self-sufficiency in modifying statements which the
Editor disbelieved.[11] It is therefore utterly worthless as a Text, and
it is curious that Andreas Mueller, who in the 17th century devoted himself
to the careful editing of Polo, should have made so unfortunate a choice
as to reproduce this fifth-hand Translation. I may add that the French
editions published in the middle of the 16th century are _translations_
from Grynaeus. Hence they complete this curious and vicious circle of
translation: French--Italian--Pipino's Latin--Portuguese?--Grynaeus's
Latin--French![12]

[Sidenote: Fourth; Ramusio's Italian.]

60. IV. We now come to a Type of Text which deviates largely from any of
those hitherto spoken of, and the history and true character of which are
involved in a cloud of difficulty. We mean that Italian version prepared
for the press by G. B. Ramusio, with most interesting, though, as we have
seen, not always accurate preliminary dissertations, and published at
Venice two years after his death, in the second volume of the _Navigationi
e Viaggi_.[13]

The peculiarities of this version are very remarkable. Ramusio seems to
imply that he used as one basis at least the Latin of Pipino; and many
circumstances, such as the division into Books, the absence of the
terminal historical chapters and of those about the Magi, and the form of
many proper names, confirm this. But also many additional circumstances
and anecdotes are introduced, many of the names assume a new shape, and
the whole style is more copious and literary in character than in any
other form of the work.

Whilst some of the changes or interpolatio