71v

[rubric: La mecha.]

¶ Fa di largeça un quatro cento miglia
Il dicto mare -e- lungo quatro volte
E de richeça niuni si gli asomiglia
De arechare pietre preciose molte
E tante perle che gram maraviglia
Vi si racolgie e sono gia racolte
Da l'altra parte -e- l'india in continente
Che si distende insino a l'oriente

¶ Sta ethiopia da meridiano
Torrida çona estendese al ponente
E al venire in giu a dextra mano
Arabia sta che ven in sin rasente
Il roso mare e terre del soldano
Ov'e la mecha e v'avi molta gente
La dove sta sepulto el maledecto
In un archa de ferro machometo

¶ Di sotto al mar roso insino al fiume
E il Nillo in fin al mare de damiata
La prima cita d'egypto che fu lume
D'astrologia e quivi fu trovata
E di scientia e d'ogni bon custume
Antichamente fu molto adornata
D'antichi padri e de sancti heremiti
Molto repiena fu dentro a suoi liti

Mecca

The aforementioned sea is about four hundred miles wide
and four times as long.^{1This does not seem like a reasonable measurement, but it is what Dati says.}
No other place compares to it in wealth
or in the precious stones
and pearls it yields—a great abundance
already gathered and yet to be gathered.
On the opposite shore is the continent of India
which extends up toward the East.

Ethiopia lies in the south,
in the torrid zone^{2A technical term for the tropics, the equatorial region between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.} that extends to the west.
Down to the right
is Arabia, which closely borders
the Red Sea and the lands of the Sultan,
where Mecca is. There are many people there,
where the cursed Mohammed is buried
in an iron sarcophagus.

Below the Red Sea, along the river
Nile until it ends at the Sea of Damietta,
is the region of Egypt, which shone because of
astrology, which was discovered here.
Science and all good customs
flourished here long ago;
it was filled to its borders with
the ancient fathers and saintly hermits.^{3A dual reference to the desert fathers, like St Anthony of Egypt.}

[rubric: La mecha.]

¶ Fa di largeça un quatro cento miglia
Il dicto mare -e- lungo quatro volte
E de richeça niuni si gli asomiglia
De arechare pietre preciose molte
E tante perle che gram maraviglia
Vi si racolgie e sono gia racolte
Da l'altra parte -e- l'india in continente
Che si distende insino a l'oriente

¶ Sta ethiopia da meridiano
Torrida çona estendese al ponente
E al venire in giu a dextra mano
Arabia sta che ven in sin rasente
Il roso mare e terre del soldano
Ov'e la mecha e v'avi molta gente
La dove sta sepulto el maledecto
In un archa de ferro machometo

¶ Di sotto al mar roso insino al fiume
E il Nillo in fin al mare de damiata
La prima cita d'egypto che fu lume
D'astrologia e quivi fu trovata
E di scientia e d'ogni bon custume
Antichamente fu molto adornata
D'antichi padri e de sancti heremiti
Molto repiena fu dentro a suoi liti

Mecca

The aforementioned sea is about four hundred miles wide
and four times as long.^{1This does not seem like a reasonable measurement, but it is what Dati said.}
No other place compares to it in wealth
or in the precious stones
and pearls it yields—a great abundance
already gathered and yet to be gathered.
On the opposite shore is the continent of India
which extends up toward the East.

Ethiopia lies in the south,
in the torrid zone^{2A technical term for the tropics, the equatorial region between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.} that extends to the west.
Down to the right
is Arabia, which closely borders
the Red Sea and the lands of the Sultan,
where Mecca is. There are many people there,
where the cursed Mohammed is buried
in an iron sarcophagus.

Below the Red Sea, along the river
Nile until it ends at the Sea of Damietta,
is the region of Egypt, which shone because of
astrology, which was discovered here.
Science and all good customs
flourished here long ago;
it was filled to its borders with
the ancient fathers and saintly hermits.^{3A dual reference to the desert fathers, like St Anthony of Egypt.}