74v
Facsimile
¶ D'africa a chapolia ad a facesse
Sum molte seche da lato remote
E chi vol navicar indi a chapesse
Fra epsi -e- litto per canal si puote
E seguen poi fin a rassa mabesse
Ma qui bisogna che de fuora sia ruote
Da tunis insin qui per maestrale
Trecento miglia sum per dritto strale.
¶ Poi tripoli cita de barbaria
Cinquanta cinque miglia inver levante
E misurata su per quella via
Ducento miglia e duo volte atretante
Sum fin a rusen per traversia
Dove fa capo il gran monte athalante
Lassando uno golfo ov'e a man drita
Çianarra e poi Sernich e tholomita
¶ E chi girasse il golfo per costiera
Serebon piu de le miglia ducento
Dal cavo di rausem a bonandria
Sum cento miglia pur per dricto vento
Lucho piu su ducento par che stia
E indi ad Alexandria a quatro cento
E quasi in meço d'epse sta la rassa
E questo paese -e- terra bassa
[image, left margin: Map with east at the top depicting a stretch of the Algerian and Tunisian coasts up to the Gulf of Gabes with Kerkennah Islands and Djerba. Ocean painted aquamarine with wave pattern in grey; the coastline heightened yellow. At top, three islands are in a darker green. Near ¶ 2 there is a a reddish-brown city with blue domes and spires. Placenames: in the water, close to the first two islands, in red ink, vertically, (label: cherchani). On the mainland, in red ink, from the top down: (label: Ixola de gierbi), (label: Caps), (label: fachse), (label: susa); in black ink, (label: cavo bono). The city is named as (label: Tunis.); further names, continuing down the coast, in red ink: (label: Cartagine), (label: biserto), (label: Bona), (label: angholo), (label: Bugiea), (label: algieri).]
Notes and Questions
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ln 14-5: Ras al Hamam is a guess based on list of Libyan cities. It seems to also be the name of a mountain peak, but it isn't very clear to me (couldn't find much info about Libyan geography online). It is south of Tripoli, though, not on the coast
It would be a good idea to think about our policy in re: how to standardize our naming. Do we follow the medieval Italian, or provide the modern English? What is our default here? Even if we do a mixture of both, we will need to state our reasoning.
Sorry for the intrusion! How about keeping the toponyms in the text as they are in the manuscript and providing a note with the "normalized" name in medieval Italian and the modern name in English? eg. Trabisonda in the text, note: Trebisonda (Trabzon, Turkey); chapolia in the text, note: Capulia (Ras Kaboudia, Tunisia)... On the other hand, the use of modern English toponyms makes the text easier to read and understand. Since it is a translation, perhaps it would be better to conform with modern English when possible, keeping medieval Italian only for doubtful and controversial cases.