Subject: Query reply: Marco Polo painting reference in The Gift]]
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <[email-masked]>
To: don <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 11:18:38 -0800

EDITOR's NOTE. There are days when I wonder if NABOKV-L, now in its
tenth year, is worth the effort. I also wondred why it took so long to
get my new messages this morning. A couple of days ago Juliette de
Dieuleveult asked about a painting mentioned in THE GIFT. No fewer than
eight people not only replied but sent copies or addresses for copies to
NABOKV-L (hence the slow download): I wish to thank Didier Machu, A
Drescher, Darrin English, Jerry Goodenough, Robert Weldon, Neil Spence,
Rodney Welch, and Dieter Zimmer whose reply I give below.

Subject: Re: Query: painting reference in The Gift]
From: "Dieter E. Zimmer" <[email-masked]>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 19:13:40 +0100

No, the Marco Polo picture mentioned in "The Gift" is not an invention. Here
it is. It is fol. 218 from Codex Bodley 264 at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
It is an (anonymous) English miniature, dated c. 1400, at the beginning of a
Marco Polo manuscript entitled "Li Livres du Graunt Caam". The same codex
opens with the Roman d'Alexandre.

Dieter E. Zimmer, Berlin, Germany
March 28, 2002 - 7pm
[email-masked]