Source:
Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, worked for a Florentine
merchant.
The following is an excerpt from a manuscript copied in 1471 and published
in the 18th century.
CHAPTER
II
Things needful
for merchants who desire to make the journey to Cathay…you must let your beard
grow…furnish
yourself with a dragoman [translator/guide] And you must not try to save money in the matter
of dragomen…
you should take with you twenty-five days’ provisions…flour and salt fish, for as to meat you will find enough of
it at all the places along the road…
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