Book contents
- Frontmatter
- DEDICATION AND PREFACE TO SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, BART., K.C.B., ETC, ETC, ETC. PRESIDENT OF THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY
- ERRATA
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Contents
- PRELIMINARY ESSAY. NOTES ON THE INTERCOURSE OF CHINA AND THE WESTERN NATIONS PREVIOUS TO THE DISCOVERT OF THE SEA-ROUTE BY THE CAPE
- SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES TO PRELIMINARY ESSAY NOTE I. EXTRACT FROM THE PERIPLUS OF THE ERYTHRÆAN SEA. (Circa A.D. 80 89.)
- ODORIC OF PORDENONE BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL NOTICES
- LETTERS AND REPORTS OF MISSIONARY FRIARS FROM CATHAY AND INDIA INTRODUCTORY NOTICES
- ADDITIONAL NOTES AND CORRECTIONS TO THE TRANSLATION OF THE MIRABILIA OF FRIAR JORDANUS. (HAK. SOC. 1863)
- LETTERS AND REPORTS OF MISSIONARY FRIARS
- Plate section
DEDICATION AND PREFACE TO SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, BART., K.C.B., ETC, ETC, ETC. PRESIDENT OF THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- DEDICATION AND PREFACE TO SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, BART., K.C.B., ETC, ETC, ETC. PRESIDENT OF THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY
- ERRATA
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Contents
- PRELIMINARY ESSAY. NOTES ON THE INTERCOURSE OF CHINA AND THE WESTERN NATIONS PREVIOUS TO THE DISCOVERT OF THE SEA-ROUTE BY THE CAPE
- SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES TO PRELIMINARY ESSAY NOTE I. EXTRACT FROM THE PERIPLUS OF THE ERYTHRÆAN SEA. (Circa A.D. 80 89.)
- ODORIC OF PORDENONE BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL NOTICES
- LETTERS AND REPORTS OF MISSIONARY FRIARS FROM CATHAY AND INDIA INTRODUCTORY NOTICES
- ADDITIONAL NOTES AND CORRECTIONS TO THE TRANSLATION OF THE MIRABILIA OF FRIAR JORDANUS. (HAK. SOC. 1863)
- LETTERS AND REPORTS OF MISSIONARY FRIARS
- Plate section
Summary
DEAR SIR RODERICK,
I am happy to be allowed to inscribe to you, from whom I have experienced no little kindness, this book, which endeavours to throw some light on the medieval geography of Asia. The subject, at least, needs no apology to one who is the honoured President of the Geographical as well as of the Hakluyt Society; for he has the best right of any man to say,“ nihil geo graphicum a me alienum puto.”
The work was originally designed to embrace only the story of Friar Odoric, and perhaps of one more traveller ; but seeing how much light the various fragments of minor medieval writers concerning China threw upon one another and upon Marco Polo, and how little known several of them were to English readers, it seemed desirable to gather all into one collection, edited as thoroughly as my capacities admitted, I never ventured to think of introducing Marco himself into the group. There is room enough, probably, for a new English edition of that prince of medieval travellers; but he claims an orbit for himself, and has no place among these asteroids. What is aimed at in these volumes is a work that shall bear some such relation to Polo as the collections of the lesser Greek geographers bear to Ptolemy.
When this task was entered on, I was more within reach of necessary aids than circumstances known to you have of late permitted, or it would scarcely have been attempted.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cathay and the Way ThitherBeing a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, pp. iii - viiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1866
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