Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/82

liv from the charge of wilful falsification, which the manifest exaggerations occurring in his story have caused to be thrown upon him. With respect to the marvels which he asserts to have fallen under his own observation, they, like those of Herodotus and Marco Polo, have been mainly, if not entirely, verified by the researches of more recent travellers. This twofold ground of exculpation we hold to be an acquittal for Mandeville, on the score of veracity. In England there are several copies of an English version of his narrative, the original of which is dedicated to Edward III, and said to have been written by Mandeville himself.

His work belongs to this place, on account of his details respecting the Tatars and the countries ruled by them.

Of the English manuscripts, there are nineteen copies in the British Museum, according to Mr. Halliwell. “So numerous,” he says, “indeed, are they, owing to its great popularity, that it would be an endless labour to collate them all, though scarcely any two copies agree to any extent.”

Besides the English manuscripts, there is a very ancient one in the French language in the Municipal Library of Berne; one in the Grenville Library, upon vellum, of the fourteenth century; and another very fine one in the Royal Library of Paris, also on vellum, with many miniatures.

The various editions of his travels are the following—

English. Here begynneth a lytell treatyse or booke