The Catalan Atlas, 1375 (detail)

​Manuscripts and Printed Editions

of the Divisament dou Monde

 

The study of the manuscript and print tradition of Marco Polo's Devisement dou Monde presents one of the most intricate and fascinating challenges in Romance philology and medieval textual criticism. The absence of an autograph manuscript has resulted in a profoundly complex and multilayered textual history. The work survives in over 140 known manuscripts, transcribed and translated across Europe in a variety of vernaculars and Latin (including Franco-Italian, Venetian, Tuscan, French, German, and Latin).

 

This vast constellation of witnesses is characterized by a high degree of variation, containing significant alterations, abridgments, and amplifications that reflect the diverse cultural contexts of its medieval and early modern readers. While this rich variance attests to the immense and immediate popularity of Polo's account throughout the 13th and 14th centuries, it simultaneously complicates the task of reconstructing a definitive ur-text.

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The foundational modern effort to navigate this labyrinthine tradition is Luigi Foscolo Benedetto's critical edition (1928), which remains a benchmark for scholarship. More recently, this work has been comprehensively expanded upon by Eugenio Burgio and Samuela Simion, whose updated recension and analysis of the entire known manuscript corpus provides an essential, state-of-the-art resource for the academic community (available here).

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Building upon these critical editions of the manuscript tradition, our current research project seeks to extend this scholarly inquiry into the era of print. We are developing a comprehensive digital catalogue of the printed editions of the Devisement dou monde, from the earliest incunabula to modern publications. This initiative aims to map the continued evolution and global circulation of Polo's text, creating an integrated framework to study its transmission from manuscript to print and understand its enduring legacy.

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Main manuscript versions of the Divisament dou Monde
(Source: ARLIMA, Archives de Littérature du Moyen Age. https://www.arlima.net/mp/marco_polo.html):

 

In Franco-Italian:

• Le Divisament dou Monde (version F)

 

In Catalan:

• Lo libre de les provincies e de les encontrados qui son desotz la seyoria del gran emperador del Catay

 

In French:

• Le Devisament dou Monde (version Fr)

• Le livre des condicions et coustumes des principalles regions de Orient

• Le livre des prouvinses et encontrees

 

In Gaelic:

• Irish version of Polo’s book

 

In German:

• Marco Polo Reisen 

 

In Italian:

• Il milione toscano (version T)

• Il Milione veneto (version V)

• Il Milione veneto (version Va)

• Il Milione veneto (version Vb)
   

In Latin:

• Francesco Pipino da Bologna, Liber de consuetudinibus et conditionibus orientalium regionum (version P)

• Liber descriptionis provinciarum Ermeniae, Persidis, Turchiae et utriusque Indiae et insularum quae sunt in India

• Zeladian version (Latin version Z)

 

In Portuguese:

• O livro de Marco Paulo

 

In Spanish:

• El libro de Marco Polo (Aragonese)

• Rodrigo Fernández de Santaella, El libro del famoso Marco Polo

 

 

The history of the Devisement dou Monde through its printed editions

 

1. Main historical editions

 

1450-1700

 

1477 - Buch des edlen Ritters und Landfahrers Marco Polo, Nuremberg: Friedrich Creussener.

Digital reproduction: https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht/?PPN=PPN736362126

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1483-1485 - De consuetudinibus et conditionibus orientalium regionum (Latin translation of Francesco Pipino), Gouda: Gerard Leeu.

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1496 – Delle maravigliose cose del mondo, Venice: Johannes Baptista Sessa.

Digital reproduction: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2090325724

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1500 – Delle maravigliose cose del mondo, Brescia: Baptista Farfengus.

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1502 ‘    Marco Paulo. Ho livro de Nycolao Veneto. Ho trallado da carta de huum genoves das ditas terras, Lisbon: Valentym Fernãdez. Digital reproduction: https://purl.pt/14703

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1503 -    El libro de las cosas maravillosas que vido en las partes orientales, Sevilla, Estanislao Polono y Jacobo Cromberger.

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1508 – De le meravegliose cose del mondo, Venice: Melchiorre Sessa.

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1529 – El libro de las cosas maravillosas que vido en las partes orientales,  Logroño, Miguel de Eguía. Digital reproduction: https://books.google.de/books?id= zXFyaEl2ZsEC&redir_esc=y

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1555 – Marco Polo venetiano in cui si tratta le meravigliose cose del mondo per lui vedute: del costume di varii paesi, dello stranio uiuere di quelli; della descrittione de diversi animali, e del trovar dell'oro, dell'argento, e delle pietre preciose, cosa nonmen utile, che bella, Venice: Matteo Pagano.

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1556 – La description geographique des provinces et villes plus fameuses de l'Inde Orientale, Paris: Etienne Groulleau.

Digital reproduction: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k842244.r=.langEN

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1559 – I viaggi di messer Marco Polo, gentilhuomo veneziano (included in Ramusio Navigationi et viaggi, second tome), Venice: Giunti.

Digital reproduction: https://pbc.gda.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=41969&from=&dirids=1&ver_id=&lp=1&QI

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1579 –  The most noble and famous travels of Marcus Paulus, one of the nobilitie of the state of Venice, into the east partes of the world, as Armenia, Persia, Arabia, Tartary, with many other kingdoms and provinces, London: [Henry Bynneman] for Ralph Newbery.

Digital reproduction: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2240900298/99840785?sourcetype=Books

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1611 – Chorographia Tartariae: Oder Warhafftige Beschreibung der uberaus wunderbahrlichen Reise, welche der Edle und weit erfahrne Venedigische Gentilhuomo Marcus Polus, mit dem zunahmen Million, noch vor vierthalb hundert Jahren, in die Oriental und Morgenlände, Leipzig: in vorlegung Henning Grosse (II), [typis Tobias Beyer, durch Lorenz Kober].

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1664 -    Reisen, en beschryving der Oostersche lantschappen, Amsterdam: for A. Wolfgang.

Digital reproduction: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id= KgliAAAAcAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions

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1671 – De Regionibus Orientalibus Libri III.: Cum Codice Manuscripto Bibliothecae Electoralis Brandenburgicae collati, exque eo adiectis Notis plurimum tum suppleti tum illustrate, Coloniae Brandeburgicae [Berlin]: Georg Schulz.

Digital reproduction: https://books.google.it/books?id=Bf5JBhl6DFAC&printsec=frontcover&hl=it&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Commentarii Super Marci Puli Veneti Historia Orientalis: https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht/?PPN=PPN722936923

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1679 - Andreae Mülleri Greiffenhagii De Sinarum Magnaeque Tatariae Rebus Commentatio Alphabetica, Ex Auctoris Commentariis Super Marci Poli Veneti Historia Orientali Aliisque Magno Numero Manuscriptis Excerpta ac saltim delibata, Berlin: 1679.

Digital reproduction: https://digital.staatsbibliothekberlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN770460453&PHYSID=PHYS_0135 &DMDID=DMDLOG_0007​​

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1700-1800

1735 – Travels Made Mainly in Asia in the XII, XIII, XIV and XV Centuries by Benjamin de Tudele, Jean Du Plan-Carpin, N. Ascelin, G. de Rubruquis, M.P. Vénitien, Haiton, J. de Mandeville and A. Contarini. Accompanied by L'histoire des Sarasins et des Tartares, edited by Pierre Bergeron, La Haye: Jean Neaulme, 2 volumes.

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1747 – A new general collection of voyages and travels. Consisting of the most esteemed relations, which have been hitherto published in any language; comprehending everything remarkable in its kind, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, compiled by John Green, but known as the Astley collection, London : Printed for T. Astley, 1745-1747. The fourth volume of the Astley Collection (p. 590 ff) contains an abstract of Polo's book, with brief explanatory notes.

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1800-1900

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1802 - Marco Paolo's Reise in den Orient, während der Jahre 1272 bis 1295. Nach den vorzüglichsten Original-Ausgaben verdeutscht und mit einem Kommentar begleitet von Felix Peregrin, Konneburg und Leipzing: Schuman.

Digital reproduction: https://books.google.com/books?id=QVFSAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

1818 – The Travels of Marco Polo, a Venetian, in the Thirteenth Century: Being a Description, by that Early Traveller, of Remarkable Places and Things, in the Eastern Parts of the World, edited by William Marsden, London: Cox and Baylin.

Digital reproduction: https://books.google.com/books?id=JetQAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

1824 - Voyages de Marco Polo, in Recueil de voyages et de mémoires de la Société de géographie, edited by Jean Baptiste Gaspard Roux de Rochelle, Paris: D’Éverat.

Digital reproduction: https://books.google.tt/books?id=qskWAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false 

 

1827 – Il Milione di Marco Polo: testo di lingua del secolo Decimoterzo, edited by Giovan Battista Baldelli Boni. Florence: Vincenzo Pagani.

Digital reproduction: https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10901674?page=6,7

 

1845 - Die Reisen des Venezianers Marco Polo im dreizehnten Jahrhundert, edited by  August Bürck and with notes by Karl Friedrich Neumann, Leipzig: Teubner.

Digital reproduction: https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/details/bsb10430619

 

1847 – The Travels of Marco Polo: Greatly Amended and Enlarged from Valuable Early Manuscripts Recently Published by the French Society of Geography and in Italy by Count Baldelli Boni, edited by Hugh Murray, Oliver & Boyd.

Digital reproduction: https://books.google.com/books?id=opNeAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

1847 – I Viaggi di Marco Polo Veneziano, tradotti per la prima volta dall' originale francese di Rusticiano di Pisa e corredati d'illustrazioni e di documenti, edited by Vincenzo Lazari, Venezia: Pasini.

Digital reproduction: https://archive.org/details/bub_gb__zhWLHSTt58C/page/n3/mode/2up

 

1854 - The Travels of Marco Polo The Venetian, edited by Thomas Wright, London: Bohn.

Digital reproduction: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Travels_of_Marco_Polo/AzqgqnIgpGEC?hl=en&gbpv=1

 

1863 –  Voyageurs anciens et modernes ou Choix des relations de voyages les plus intéressantes et les plus instructives depuis le cinquième siècle avant Jésus-Christ jusqu'au dix-neuvième siècle, avec biographies, notes et indications iconographiques, vol. 2, edited by Édouard Charton, Paris : Au Magasins du Bureau Pittoresque.

Digital reproduction: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Voyageurs_anciens_et_modernes_ou_choix_d/JVdBAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1

 

1863 - I viaggi di Marco Polo, secondo la lezione del codice Magliabechiano più antico, reintegrati col testo francese a stampa, edited by Adolfo Bartoli, Firenze: Le Monnier.

Digital reproduction: https://archive.org/details/iviaggidimarcopo00polo/page/n3/mode/2up

 

1865 - Le livre de Marco Polo, edited by Guillaume Pauthier, Paris: Firmin Didot.

Digital reproduction: https://archive.org/details/LeLivreDeMarcoPoloPauthierVol1/page/n13/mode/2up

 

1871 – The Book of Ser Marco Polo, The Venetian, edited by Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, London: Murray (2 volumes).

Digital reproduction – volume 1: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.534143/page/n5/mode/2up

Digital reproduction – volume 2: https://archive.org/details/dli.pahar.0715