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¶ 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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mpkeane

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

Laura K. Morreale LLC

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.

deb

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.