ed in the
latter city, 10th July, 1557, but was buried at Venice in the Church
of S. Maria dell' Orto. There was a portrait of him by Paul Veronese
in the Hall of the Great Council, but it perished in the fire of 1577;
and that which is now seen in the Sala dello Scudo is, like the
companion portrait of Marco Polo, imaginary. Paolo Ramusio, his son,
was the author of the well-known History of the Capture of
Constantinople. (_Cicogna_, II. 310 seqq.)

[14] The old French texts were unknown in Marsden's time. Hence this
question did not present itself to him.

[15] _Wangcheu_ in the Chinese Annals; _Vanchu_ in Ramusio. I assume that
Polo's _Vanchu_ was pronounced as in English; for in Venetian the _ch_
very often has that sound. But I confess that I can adduce no other
instance in Ramusio where I suppose it to have this sound, except in
the initial sound of _Chinchitalas_ and twice in _Choiach_ (see II.
364).

Professor Bianconi, who has treated the questions connected with the
Texts of Polo with honest enthusiasm and laborious detail, will admit
nothing genuine in the Ramusian interpolations beyond the preservation
of some _oral traditions_ of Polo's supplementary recollections. But
such a theory is out of the question in face of a chapter like that on
Ahmad.

[16] Old Purchas appears to have greatly relished Ramusio's comparative
lucidity: "I found (says he) this Booke translated by Master Hakluyt
out of the Latine (i.e. among Hakluyt's MS. collections). But where
the blind leade the blind both fall: as here the corrupt _Latine_
could not but yeeld a corruption of truth in _English_. Ramusio,
Secretarie to the _Decemviri_ in _Venice_, found a better Copie and
published the same, whence you have the worke in manner new: so
renewed, that I have found the Proverbe true, that it is better to
pull downe an old house and to build it anew, then to repaire it; as I
also should have done, had I knowne that which in the event I found.
The _Latine_ is Latten, compared to _Ramusio's_ Gold. And hee which
hath the _Latine_ hath but _Marco Polo's_ carkasse or not so much, but
a few bones, yea, sometimes stones rather then bones; things divers,
averse, adverse, perverted in manner, disjoynted in manner, beyond
beliefe. I have seene some Authors maymed, but never any so mangled
and so mingled, so pr