ith which one encounters in Catalogues both MSS.
and early printed editions of Sir John Maundevile, I should suppose that
the lying wonders of our English Knight had a far greater popularity and
more extensive diffusion than the veracious and more sober marvels of
Polo.[2] To Southern Italy Polo's popularity certainly does not seem at
any time to have extended. I cannot learn that any MS. of his Book exists
in any Library of the late Kingdom of Naples or in Sicily.[3]

Dante, who lived for twenty-three years after Marco's work was written,
and who touches so many things in the seen and unseen Worlds, never
alludes to Polo, nor I think to anything that can be connected with his
Book. I believe that no mention of _Cathay_ occurs in the _Divina
Commedia_. That distant region is indeed mentioned more than once in the
poems of a humbler contemporary, Francesco da Barberino, but there is
nothing in his allusions besides this name to suggest any knowledge of
Polo's work.[4]

Neither can I discover any trace of Polo or his work in that of his
contemporary and countryman, Marino Sanudo the Elder, though this worthy
is well acquainted with the somewhat later work of Hayton, and many of the
subjects which he touches in his own book would seem to challenge a
reference to Marco's labours.

[Sidenote: Contemporary references to Polo.]

76. Of contemporary or nearly contemporary references to our Traveller by
name, the following are all that I can produce, and none of them are new.

First there is the notice regarding his presentation of his book to
Thibault de Cepoy, of which we need say no more (supra, p. 68).

Next there is the Preface to Friar Pipino's Translation, which we give at
length in the Appendix (E) to these notices. The phraseology of this
appears to imply that Marco was still alive, and this agrees with the date
assigned to the work by Ramusio. Pipino was also the author of a
Chronicle, of which a part was printed by Muratori, and this contains
chapters on the Tartar wars, the destruction of the Old Man of the
Mountain, etc., derived from Polo. A passage not printed by Muratori has
been extracted by Prof. Bianconi from a MS. of this Chronicle in the
Modena Library, and runs as follows:--

"The matters which follow, concerning the magnificence of the Tartar
Emperors, whom in their language they call _Cham_ as we have said, are
related by Marcus Paulus the Venetian in a certain Book of his which has
been tr