Page 86 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

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76 Arabian Studies IV
of Mecca’; ‘Of the citie of Mecca’; ‘Of the house of Abraham’; ‘Of
the ceremonies of the pilgrimcs’; ‘What the Carovan doeth after
having rested at Mecca’; ‘Of the three Carovans’; ‘The summe of
the Santoncs sermon’; ‘Of Grida’; ‘Of their going to Medina’; ‘Of
Medina’; ‘Of things without the City’; ‘The offering of the vestures
unto the sepulchres’.
It is, in fact, evident that the work is not composite but was
written as a single treatise for, in the second section, ‘Of the Coast
of Alexandria’, after giving some particulars about places to the
east of the city like Burullus and Damietta, the writer says:
‘Passing this place we enter Judea. But because our intent is to
reason simply of the voyage to Mecca, we will proceede no further
this way.’
Moreover, it must be obvious to the most casual reader that all
sections, and not only the last fifteen, were translated from Italian.
Throughout this part of the work there are spellings and even
words which can only have come from an Italian original, e.g. ‘La
colonna di Pompeio, or the pillar of Pompey’, ‘a broad Hand called
Ghesira in the Moores tongue’, ‘Damasco’, ‘Fontechi’, ‘Morastano,
that is to say, The hospitall’, ‘Sciafii, the second Doctor of this
law’, ‘Giamalazar, that is, the house of Lazarus’ (sic), ‘the countrey
of Prete Janni’. Indeed, it is likely that the manuscript in the British
Library is incomplete and that it formerly contained the first five
sections. It is bound with other Italian relazioni and the approxi­
mate dates are given by Sir George Warner and J. P. Gilson as
‘circ. 1546-1595’.4 They were bound carelessly. Our manuscript is
the second item and is written on ff. 41r. to 87v., but it has been
inserted before the end of the first item, which is entitled
‘Relatione dell’Imperio e Ducato di Moscovia’. At the end of f.
40v. is written: ‘Quod reliquum est, quaere ffolio 96’ and the
number 88 has been added in pencil, representing the number of
the relevant folio in the volume as bound; 96 represents an older
numeration marked sporadically in ink, according to which f. 41 is
numbered 48. The apparent discrepancy is caused by the fact that
a blank leaf at the end of item 2 and before the resumption of item
1 has been included in the old numeration marked in ink, but
ignored in the later numeration in pencil. Since, then, our
manuscript begins on f. 48, it must once have formed part of a
manuscript which afforded more than enough space for the
missing five sections. Again, the title of the first section it contains,
‘Del preparamento della Caravanna per il Viaggio della Mecca’ is
written in two lines on the right hand side of the page, as are the
titles of the other sections, and not as if it were intended to be the
title of a separate work. Moreover, the opening phrase of the text