Storia do Mogor 15.1.1

15.1.1

A work written by an Italian not in his mother-tongue, but in Portuguese, has always presented an interesting problem. We find now, on consulting the Codex at Venice, that about one-third of the whole work was drawn up originally in Italian. I have not used this text much, so I am not able to say fully in what it differs from the final copy of Parts I. to III., prepared in French and in Portuguese for transmission to Europe. But from what I have seen of it, the Italian text is much inferior in arrangement to the Berlin MS. ; its only use is to furnish a various reading here and there, and, perhaps, a few extra details worth preserving. The explanation for the choice of language, perhaps not a very sufficient one, as given by Manucci in two or three places, is that he was forced to change the language according to the nationality of the amanuensis available at the time. For instance, what he says (in Italian) on folio 364 of Codex XLIV. (Zanetti) is : ' Owing to the want of an Italian copyist, I have been obliged to continue my work in French, and even in Portuguese. The latter is far from correct, there not being any scribes here who are careful to seek always for the meaning of words ; I leave the matter to the goodwill of the learned.' From this point he drops Italian for French, and shortly after changes into Portuguese.