Medieval People Part 11

22. The Monk of St Gall's _Life_ in op. cit., pp. 78-9.

23. See the description in Lavisse, _Hist. de France II_, pt. I, p. 321; also G. Monod, _Les moeurs judiciaires au VIIIe Siecle_, Revue Historique, t. x.x.xV (1887).

24. See Faigniez, op. cit., pp. 43-4.

25. See the Monk of St Gall's account of the finery of the Frankish n.o.bles: 'It was a holiday and they had just come from Pavia, whither the Venetians had carried all the wealth of the East from their territories beyond the sea,--others, I say, strutted in robes made of pheasant-skins and silk; or of the necks, backs and tails of peac.o.c.ks in their first plumage. Some were decorated with purple and lemon-coloured ribbons; some were wrapped round with blankets and some in ermine robes.' Op.

cit., p. 149. The translation is a little loose: the 'phoenix robes' of the original were more probably made out of the plumage, not of the pheasant but of the scarlet flamingo, as Hodgson thinks _(Early Hist. of Venice_, p. 155), or possibly silks woven or embroidered with figures of birds, as Heyd thinks _(Hist. du Commerce du Levant_, I, p. 111).

26. The Monk of St. Gall's _Life_ in op. cit., pp. 81-2.

27. This little poem was scribbled by an Irish scribe in the margin of a copy of Priscian in the monastery of St Gall, in Switzerland, the same from which Charlemagne's highly imaginative biographer came. The original will be found in Stokes and Strachan, _Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus_ (1903) II, p. 290. It has often been translated and I quote the translation by Kuno Meyer, _Ancient Irish Poetry_ (2nd ed., 1913), p. 99. The quotation from the _Triads of Ireland_ at the head of this chapter is taken from Kuno Meyer also, ibid. pp. 102-3.

CHAPTER III

MARCO POLO

_A. Raw Material_

1. _The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East_, trans. and ed. with notes by Sir Henry Yule (3rd edit., revised by Henri Cordier, 2 vols., Hakluyt Soc., 1903). See also H. Cordier, _Ser Marco Polo: Notes and Addenda_ (1920). The best edition of the original French text is _Le Livre de Marco Polo_, ed. G. Pauthier (Paris, 1865), The most convenient and cheap edition of the book for English readers is a reprint of Marsden's translation (of the Latin text) and notes (first published, 1818), with an introduction by John Masefield, _The Travels of Marco Polo the Venetian_ (Everyman's Library, 1908; reprinted, 1911); but some of the notes (identifying places, etc.) are now out of date, and the great edition by Yule and Cordier should be consulted where exact and detailed information is required. It is a mine of information, geographical and historical, about the East. I quote from the Everyman Edition as Marco Polo, op. cit., and from the Yule edition as Yule, op. cit.

2. _La Cronique des Veneciens de Maistre Martin da Ca.n.a.l_. In _Archivo Storico Italiano_, 1st ser., vol. VIII (Florence, 1845). Written in French and accompanied by a translation into modern Italian. One of the most charming of medieval chronicles.

_B. Modern Works_

1. For medieval Venice see-- F.C. Hodgson: _The Early History of Venice from the Foundation to the Conquest of Constantinople_ (1901); and _Venice in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, A Sketch of Venetian History, 1204-1400_ (1910).

P.G. Molmenti: _Venice, its Growth to the Fall of the Republic_, vols.

I and II (_The Middle Ages_), trans. H.F. Brown (1906); and _La Vie Privee a Venise_, vol. I (1895).

H.F. Brown: _Studies in the History of Venice_, vol. I (1907).

Mrs Oliphant: _The Makers of Venice_ (1905) is pleasant reading and contains a chapter on Marco Polo.

2. For medieval China, the Tartars, and European intercourse with the far East see-- Sir Henry Yule's introduction to his great edition of Marco Polo (above).

_Cathay and the Way Thither: Medieval Notices of China_, trans. and ed. by Sir Henry Yule, 4 vols. (Hakluyt Soc., 1915-16). Contains an invaluable introduction and all the best accounts of China left by medieval European travellers. Above all, Oderic of Pordenone (d. 1331) should be read as a pendant to Marco Polo.

R. Beazley: _The Dawn of Modern Geography_, vols. II and III (1897-1906).

R. Grousset: _Histoire de l'Asie_, t. III (3rd edit., 1922), Chap. I.

A short and charmingly written account of the Mongol Empires from Genghis Khan to Timour.

H. Howarth: _History of the Mongols_ (1876).

3. For medieval trade with the East the best book is-- W. Heyd: _Histoire du Commerce du Levant au Moyen-age_, trans., F. Raynaud; 2 vols. (Leipzig and Paris, 1885-6, reprinted 1923).

_C. Notes to the Text_

1. To be exact, the Flanders galleys which sailed via Gibraltar to Southampton and Bruges were first sent out forty years after 1268--in 1308. Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries they sailed every year, and Southampton owes its rise to prosperity to the fact that it was their port of call.

2. The occasion of the speech quoted was when the imperial representative Longinus was trying to get the help of the Venetians against the Lombards in 568 and invited them to acknowledge themselves subjects of the Emperor. The speech is quoted in _Encyclop. Brit._, Art.

_Venice_ (by H.F. Brown), p. 1002. The episode of the loaves of bread belongs to the attempt of Pipin, son of Charlemagne, to starve out the Rialto in the winter of 809-10. Compare the tale of Charlemagne casting his sword into the sea, with the words, 'Truly, even as this brand which I have cast into the sea shall belong neither to me nor to you nor to any other man in all the world, even so shall no man in the world have power to hurt the realm of Venice; and he who would harm it shall feel the wrath and displeasure of G.o.d, even as it has fallen upon me and my people.'--See Ca.n.a.le, _Cron._, c. VIII. These are, of course, all legends.

3. 'Voirs est que la mer Arians est de le ducat de Venise.'--Ca.n.a.le, op.

cit., p. 600. Albertino Mussato calls Venice 'dominatrix Adriaci maris.'--Molmenti, _Venice_, I, p. 120.

4. See some good contemporary accounts of the ceremony quoted in Molmenti, _Venice_, I, pp. 212-15.

5. During the fatal war of Chioggia between the two republics of Venice and Genoa, which ended in 1381, it was said that the Genoese admiral (or some say Francesco Carrara), when asked by the Doge to receive peace amba.s.sadors, replied, 'Not before I have bitted the horses on St Mark's.'--H.F. Brown, _Studies in the Hist. of Venice_, I, p. 130.

6. Ca.n.a.le, op. cit., p. 270.

7. 'The weather was clear and fine ... and when they were at sea, the mariners let out the sails to the wind, and let the ships run with spread sails before the wind over the sea'--See, for instance, Ca.n.a.le, op. cit., pp. 320, 326, and elsewhere.

8. Ca.n.a.le, op. cit., cc. I and II, pp. 268-72. Venice is particularly fortunate in the descriptions which contemporaries have left of her--not only her own citizens (such as Ca.n.a.le, Sanudo and the Doge Mocenigo) but also strangers. Petrarch's famous description of Venetian commerce, as occasioned by the view which he saw from his window in the fourteenth century, has often been quoted: 'See the innumerable vessels which set forth from the Italian sh.o.r.e in the desolate winter, in the most variable and stormy spring, one turning its prow to the east, the other to the west; some carrying our wine to foam in British cups, our fruits to flatter the palates of the Scythians and, still more hard of credence, the wood of our forests to the Egean and the Achaian isles; some to Syria, to Armenia, to the Arabs and Persians, carrying oil and linen and saffron, and bringing back all their diverse goods to us....

Let me persuade you to pa.s.s another hour in my company. It was the depth of night and the heavens were full of storm, and I, already weary and half asleep, had come to an end of my writing, when suddenly a burst of shouts from the sailors penetrated my ear. Aware of what these shouts should mean from former experience, I rose hastily and went up to the higher windows of this house, which look out upon the port. Oh, what a spectacle, mingled with feelings of pity, of wonder, of fear and of delight! Resting on their anchors close to the marble banks which serve as a mole to the vast palace which this free and liberal city has conceded to me for my dwelling, several vessels have pa.s.sed the winter, exceeding with the height of their masts and spars the two towers which flank my house. The larger of the two was at this moment--though the stars were all hidden by the clouds, the winds shaking the walls, and the roar of the sea filling the air--leaving the quay and setting out upon its voyage. Jason and Hercules would have been stupefied with wonder, and Tiphys, seated at the helm, would have been ashamed of the nothing which won him so much fame. If you had seen it, you would have said it was no ship but a mountain, swimming upon the sea, although under the weight of its immense wings a great part of it was hidden in the waves. The end of the voyage was to be the Don, beyond which nothing can navigate from our seas; but many of those who were on board, when they had reached that point, meant to prosecute their journey, never pausing till they had reached the Ganges or the Caucasus, India and the Eastern Ocean. So far does love of gain stimulate the human mind.'--Quoted from Petrarch's _Lettere Senili_ in Oliphant, _Makers of Venice_ (1905), p. 349; the whole of this charming chapter, 'The Guest of Venice', should be read. Another famous description of Venice occurs in a letter written by Pietro Aretino, a guest of Venice during the years 1527 to 1533, to t.i.tian, quoted in E. Hutton, _Pietro Aretino, the Scourge of Princes_ (1922), pp. 136-7; compare also his description of the view from his window on another occasion, quoted ibid., pp. 131-3.

The earliest of all is the famous letter written by Ca.s.siodorus to the Venetians in the sixth century, which is partly translated in Molmenti, op. cit., I, pp. 14-15.

9. The account of the march of the gilds occupies cc. CCLXIII-CCLx.x.xIII of Ca.n.a.le's Chronicle, op. cit., pp. 602-26. It has often been quoted.

10. Ca.n.a.le, op. cit., c. CCLXI, p. 600.

11. This account of Hangchow is taken partly from Marco Polo, op. cit., bk. II, c. LXVIII: 'Of the n.o.ble and magnificent city of Kinsai'; and partly from Odoric of Pordenone, _Cathay and the Way Thither_, ed. Yule, pp. 113-20.

12. Oderic of Pordenone, who was a man before he was a friar, remarks: 'The Chinese are comely enough, but colourless, having beards of long straggling hair like mousers, cats I mean. And as for the women, they are the most beautiful in the world.' Marco Polo likewise never fails to note when the women of a district are specially lovely, in the same way that that other traveller Arthur Young always notes the looks of the chambermaids at the French inns among the other details of the countryside, and is so much affronted if waited on by a plain girl.

Marco Polo gives the palm for beauty to the women of the Province of Timochain (or Damaghan) on the north-east border of Persia, of which, he says, 'The people are in general a handsome race, especially the women, who, in my opinion, are the most beautiful in the world.'--Marco Polo, op. cit., p. 73. Of the women of Kinsai he reports thus: 'The courtesans are accomplished and are perfect in the arts of blandishment and dalliance, which they accompany with expressions adapted to every description of person, insomuch that strangers who have once tasted of their charms, remain in a state of fascination, and become so enchanted by their meretricious arts, that they can never divest themselves of the impression. Thus intoxicated with sensual pleasures, when they return to their homes they report that they have been in Kinsai, or the celestial city, and pant for the time when they may be enabled to revisit paradise.' Of the respectable ladies, wives of the master craftsmen he likewise says: 'They have much beauty and are brought up with languid and delicate habits. The costliness of their dresses, in silks and jewellery, can scarcely be imagined.'--op. cit., pp. 296, 297-8.

13. Yule, op. cit., II, p. 184.

14. For Prester John see Sir Henry Yule's article 'Prester John' in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, and Lynn Thorndike, _A History of Magic and Experimental Science_ (1923), II, pp. 236-45. There is a pleasant popular account in S. Baring Gould, _Popular Myths of the Middle Ages_ (1866-8).

15. For their accounts see _The Journal of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts, 1253-5, by himself, with two accounts of the Earlier Journey of John of Pian da Carpine_, trans. and ed. with notes by W.W.

Rockhill (Hakluyt Soc., 1900). Rubruck especially is a most delightful person.

16. This, together with the whole account of the first journey of the elder Polos, the circ.u.mstances of the second journey, and of their subsequent return occurs in the first chapter of Marco Polo's book, which is a general introduction, after which he proceeds to describe in order the lands through which he pa.s.sed. This autobiographical section is unfortunately all too short.

17. As a matter of fact, William of Rubruck had seen and described it before him.

18. For Marco Polo's account of this custom in the province which he calls 'Kardandan', see op. cit., p. 250. An ill.u.s.tration of it from an alb.u.m belonging to the close of the Ming dynasty is reproduced in S.W.

Bush.e.l.l, _Chinese Art_ (1910), fig. 134.

19. Marco Polo, _op. cit_., pp. 21-2.

20. A certain _Poh-lo_ was, according to the Chinese annals of the Mongol dynasty, appointed superintendent of salt mines at Yangchow shortly after 1282. Professor Parker thinks that he may be identified with our Polo, but M. Cordier disagrees. See E.H. Parker _Some New Facts about Marco Polos Book_ in _Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review_ (1904), p. 128; and H. Cordier, _Ser Marco Polo_, p. 8. See also Yule, _Marco Polo_, I, Introd., p. 21.

21. P. Parrenin in _Lett. Edis_., xxiv, 58, quoted in Yule, _op. cit_., I, Introd., p. II.

22. On Marco Polo's omissions see Yule, _op. cit_., I, Introd., p. 110.

23. Marco Polo, _op. cit_., p. 288.

24. On Chao Meng-fu see S.W. Bush.e.l.l, _Chinese Art_ (1910), II, pp.

133--59; H.A. Giles, _Introd. to the History of Chinese Pictorial Art_ (Shanghai, 2nd ed., 1918), pp. 159 ff.; the whole of c. VI of this book on the art which flourished under the Mongol dynasty is interesting. See also L. Binyon, _Painting in the Far East_ (1908), pp. 75-7, 146-7. One of Chao Meng-fu's horse pictures, or rather a copy of it by a j.a.panese artist, is reproduced in Giles, _op. cit_., opposite p. 159. See also my notes on ill.u.s.trations for an account of the famous landscape roll painted by him in the style of w.a.n.g Wei.

25. Bush.e.l.l, _op. cit_., p. 135.