lettered by Abraham Ortelius, 1570
Written source · Italian

Ramusio's second volume of voyages: Marco Polo, Hayton, Barbaro and the Muscovy texts

The Venetian editor Ramusio's 1574 collection of the classic Italian texts on Tartary, with his own commentaries.

Full title Second Volume of Navigations and Voyages: Marco Polo, Hayton, the Venetian travellers in Persia and Tartary, and the Muscovy texts

Giovanni Battista Ramusio, editor, with Marco Polo, Hayton, Barbaro, Contarini, Angiolello, Zeno, Campense, Herberstein and Interiano

Read the 4 passagesOpen the original book

Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485 to 1557), a Venetian official, gathered travel accounts in Italian; this second volume, published after his death (1559, this copy Venice 1574), holds his recension of Marco Polo, Hayton the Armenian's Flower of the Histories of the East, the Venetian envoys Barbaro and Contarini to the Tatars and Persia, Herberstein on Muscovy, and, in this printing, the 'Due viaggi in Tartaria' (the papal envoys of 1245 to 1247, via Vincent of Beauvais). Ramusio adds his own discourses, including a report from a Persian merchant about western China. The bundle pages were mostly index; accounts here come from the texts themselves.

How they knew
Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here
Varies by text: the Mongols of Chinggis and Kublai (Polo, Hayton, Carpini), the Golden Horde Tatars on the Don (Barbaro), Crimean and Volga Tatars (Muscovy texts), and even the ruler of Ming China ('Daimir Can, great Emperor of the Tartars') in Ramusio's merchant report.
Why read it
It is the form in which most Renaissance readers met the Tartars, and it carries rare material such as Barbaro's eyewitness Tana and Ramusio's own notes on maps, Prester John and China.
Watch out
An anthology: each text has its own date and reliability, and Ramusio's Polo is a distinct recension. The 1574 copy does include the 'Due viaggi in Tartaria' (from n601). OCR is rough, so quotes were checked against page images.

What it says: 4 passages

CitiesAzov (Tana)c. 1438

'Whoever is afraid builds towers'

Editorial contextGiosafat Barbaro, a Venetian merchant who lived at Tana on the Don for sixteen years, watched a whole horde migrate past the town. Asked whether these people wander like gypsies, he says no: apart from having no walls, their camps look like very large and beautiful cities. When he asked a Tatar merchant if Tana's fine gate tower was not beautiful, the man laughed: 'Pah, whoever is afraid builds towers.'

I answer no: for, except that they are not surrounded by walls, such encampments look like very large and very beautiful cities. Being one day at Tana, speaking of this, over whose gate there was a rather fine tower, and having beside me a Tartar merchant who was looking at the tower, I asked him: Does this seem a fine thing to you? And he, looking at me and smiling, said: Pah, whoever is afraid builds a tower.

Working translation

Original wording

Rispondo di nò: conciosia, ch'eccetto il nõ esser circondati di mura, tali alloggiamenti paiono grossissime, & bellissime città. Ritrouandomi, a questo proposito, vn giorno alla Tana, sopra la porta dellaquale era vna torre assai bella, & essendo appresso di me vn Tartaro mercante, ilquale guardaua la torre, gli domãdai: Ti pare vna bella cosa questa? Et egli, guardandomi, & sorridendo, disse: poh, c'ha paura, fa torre

Giosafat Barbaro (Viaggio alla Tana, written 1487), in Ramusio's Italian edition
See the original page (p. 95)

About Tatars of the Golden Horde (the horde of Küchük Muhammad)

Keep in mind

Barbaro wrote his memoir some fifty years after the events.

Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR partly garbled); long s and ligatures normalized.

BuildingsZhangye (Campion, Ganzhou), Gansuc. 1550 (told to Ramusio in Venice)

Brick houses and a painters' street under the 'Emperor of the Tartars'

Editorial contextRamusio adds to his Marco Polo commentary what a Persian merchant, Hajji Muhammad ('Chaggi Memet'), told him in Venice about Campion (Ganzhou), a city of idol-worshippers subject to 'Daimir Can, great Emperor of the Tartars'. Its houses were built 'in our manner' of fired brick and stone, two or three storeys high, with painted ceilings, and one whole street was lived in only by painters. He also mentions temples like churches, colossal gilded statues and printing.

The city of Campion is inhabited by peoples who are idolaters, subject to the lordship of Daimir Can, great Emperor of the Tartars ... The buildings of their houses are made in our manner, of fired brick and of living stone, with two and three storeys, which are ceiled and painted with pictures of various and different colours and with figures; there are also countless painters, and there is a quarter where no one lives but painters.

Working translation

Original wording

La città di Campion è habitata da popoli che sono idolatri: soggetta alla signoria de Daimir Can, grande Imperatore de Tartari … Le fabriche delle lor case son fatte al modo nostro di pietre cotte, & di pietre viue, con due & tre solari, quali sono soffittati & dipinti di pittura di varij & diuersi colori, & di figure: vi sono anco infiniti pittori: & vi è vna contrada doue non habita altri, che pittori.

Giovanni Battista Ramusio, Dichiaratione on Marco Polo, reporting the Persian merchant Hajji Muhammad
See the original page (p. 16)

About 'Idolaters' of Campion, subjects of 'Daimir Can, great Emperor of the Tartars'

Keep in mind

Second-hand merchant's report. 'Daimir Can' is probably the Ming emperor ('Dai Ming Khan'), so here 'Tartars' is a loose label for the ruler of China.

Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR partly garbled); long s and ligatures normalized.

The nameMongolia1245 to 1247

The 'Water Mongols', named Tartars after the river Tartar

Editorial contextIn Ramusio's Italian 'Two journeys to Tartary', drawn from the papal envoys of 1245 to 1247, the land called 'Mongal, or Tartaria' once held four peoples: the Yeka Mongol ('great Mongols'), the Su Mongol ('water Mongols'), who were the Tartars proper, named after a river Tartar that watered their land, and the Merkit and the Mecrit. Chinggis came from the first and conquered the rest.

It anciently had four peoples (as is said): the first people in their language was called Yekamongal, that is, great Mongols. The second, Summongal, that is, water Mongols, who were the Tartars themselves, so named from a river Tartar which waters their country. The third, Merkath. The fourth, Metrith.

Working translation

Original wording

Hebbe anticamente quattro Popoli (come si dice) il primo Popolo in lingua loro diceuasi Iekamongal, cioè, grandi Mongali. Il secondo, Summongal, cioè, Aquatici Mongali, che erano essi Tartari da un fiume Tartar cosi nominati, ilquale bagna il suo paese. Il terzo Merkath. Il quarto, Metrith.

John of Plano Carpini (and Simon of Saint-Quentin), via Vincent of Beauvais, in Ramusio's Italian 'Due viaggi in Tartaria'
See the original page (p. 227)

About Mongols and Tatars (Carpini's four peoples of 'Mongal')

Keep in mind

A medieval Latin report reached Ramusio through Vincent of Beauvais's encyclopedia; the river Tartar is a folk explanation of the name.

Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR partly garbled); long s and ligatures normalized.

Strange talesNorthern Asia1559 (Ramusio's commentary)

Prester John between Gog and Magog on the old sea charts

Editorial contextRamusio notes that Marco Polo called the northern lord Uncan 'Prester John' and put his seat in two regions, Og and Magog. He adds that on all the sea charts made 200 and 300 years earlier, Prester John is placed in the north above India, between the Ganges and the Indus, with no mention of an Ethiopian Prester John; on the next page he calls these 'the provinces of Gog and Magog, that is, of the Tartars'.

where Messer Marco Polo says that in the north there was a great lord called Uncan, whose name some take to mean Prester John in our language, and that his principal seat was in two regions, Og and Magog: it should be known that on all those sea charts one sees today, made 200 and 300 years ago, this Prester John is placed in the north and above India

Working translation

Original wording

oue dice Messer Marco Polo che sotto la Tramontana v'era vn gran signore detto VmCan che vogliono alcuni questo nome dire Preti Ianni, nella nostra lingua: & che la sua principale sedia era in due regioni, Og & Magog, è da sapere, che in tutte quelle carte da nauigare che si vegghono hoggidi fatte già 200 & 300. anni, v'è posto questo Prete Ianni sotto la Tramontana & sopra l'India

Giovanni Battista Ramusio, Dichiaratione on Marco Polo
See the original page

About Tartars identified with Gog and Magog; 'Uncan' as Prester John

Keep in mind

Ramusio is reporting legend and old maps, not asserting the facts himself; useful for the maps team.

Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR partly garbled); long s and ligatures normalized.

The fine print

How we know

compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.

compilation of earlier firsthand narratives, edited and glossed by Ramusio with his own discourses (Dichiaratione on Marco Polo, Discorso sopra il libro di Haiton Armeno); Ramusio's Polo text derives from a lost Latin recension and is an independent witness

Research notes
  • Ramusio's Polo text (R) contains material absent from other manuscripts and its source is lost, so it is both witness and problem; the 1583 edition adds texts. Overlaps W040 (Polo), W061 (Barbaro, Contarini), W035 (Herberstein) in English translation.
  • Whether the 1574 printing includes the 'Due viaggi in Tartaria' (Carpini/Ascelin via Vincent of Beauvais) was not confirmed by OCR sampling; check table of contents.
  • Further copies: gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k131851r (vol. I, 1606)

Why it matters

The Italian Renaissance canon of Tartary texts in one volume; Ramusio's Polo recension (with unique passages) and his Italian Hayton were the versions most Europeans read, and his discourses are the first critical commentary on the Cathay/Tartary geography.

Places named

Tartaria; Cathay; Persia; Tana/Azov; Crimea; Caucasus; Muscovy; Circassia; Samarkand (reported)

Peoples named

Named only as Tartars or Tatars
Mongols and the Mongol empire
Golden Horde and its Tatar successor khanates
Turkic and Central Asian peoples and states
Persian, Arab, Ottoman and other Islamic states
Rus, Muscovy and the Russian Empire
Peoples of the Caucasus

Tartars; Great Khan (Kublai); Golden Horde; Timurids (Tamberlano); Aq Qoyunlu (Ussuncassan); Safavids; Muscovy; Circassians; Armenians

Keep exploring

The witness before
1260 to 1305Hayton's Flower of the Histories of the EastAn Armenian prince who knew the Mongol court dictates, in 1307, a geography of Asia and a history of the Tartar khans from Genghis to his own day.Part eyewitness · 13 passages
The witness after
c. 1271 to 1295The Book of Ser Marco Polo (Yule's edition)The Venetian merchant who served Kublai Khan for some seventeen years describes the Mongol 'Tartars', their camps, capitals, customs and empire, c. 1271 to 1295.Part eyewitness · 14 passages
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