G.L. 396 .. Invenit unam Provinciam quae vocatur
Anchota de confinibus Mangi.
(6). G.T. 146 (II. 119.) Les dames portent as jambes et es
braces, braciaus d’or et d’arjent de
grandisme vailance.
Crusca, 189 .. Le donne portano alle braccia e alle
gambe bracciali d’oro e d’ariento
di gran valuta.
G.L. 411 .. Dominae eorum portant ad brachia et
ad gambas brazalia de auro et de
argento magni valoris.
B. Passages showing additionally
the errors, or other peculiarities
of a translation from a French original, common
to the Italian and the
Latin.
(7). G.T. 32 (I. 97.)
Est celle plaingne mout chaue (chaude).
Crusca, 35 .. Questo piano
e molto cavo.
G.L. 322 .. Ista planities
est multum cava.
(8). G.T. 36 (I. 110). Avent por
ce que l’eive hi est amer.
Crusca, 40 .. E questo e per
lo mare che vi viene.
G.L. 324 .. Istud est propter
mare quod est ibi.
(9). G.T. 8 (I. 50.) Un roi qi est
apeles par tout tens
Davit Melic, que veut
a dir en fransois
Davit Roi.
Crusca, 20 .. Uno re il quale
si chiama sempre
David Melic, cio e
a dire in francesco
David Re.
G.L. 312 .. Rex qui semper
vocatur David Mellic,
quod sonat in gallico
David Rex.
These passages, and many more that might be quoted, seem to me to demonstrate (1) that the Latin and the Crusca have had a common original, and (2) that this original was an Italian version from the French.
[2] Thus the Pucci MS. at Florence, in the
passage regarding the Golden
King (vol. ii. p. 17) which
begins in G. T. “Lequel fist faire jadis
un rois qe fu apelles le
Roi Dor,” renders “Lo quale fa fare
Jaddis uno re,”
a mistake which is not in the Crusca nor in the
Latin, and seems to imply
derivation from the French directly, or by
some other channel (Baldelli
Boni).
[3] In the Prologue (vol. i. p. 34) this class of
MSS. alone names the
King of England.
In the account of the Battle with Nayan (i. p. 337) this class alone speaks of the two-stringed instruments which the Tartars played whilst awaiting the signal for battle. But the circumstance appears elsewhere in the G. T. (p. 250).
In the chapter on Malabar
(vol. ii. p. 390), it is said that the
ships which go with cargoes
towards Alexandria are not one-tenth of
those that go to the further
East. This is not in the older French.
In the chapter on Coilun
(ii. p. 375), we have a notice of the
Columbine ginger so celebrated
in the Middle Ages, which is also
absent from the older text.