430 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



tioned bv tliat name. As in many instances, ancient and modem, the 

 city stood for the whole country. Tanais was a self-governing com- 

 mnnity in the fifteenth century and owned a portion of what was often 

 called tlie " Plains of Tartary." Tlie Tartars roamed over all the 

 territory between the Dnieper and Vol<;a (formerly Edil), but they 

 respected for a long time the State of Tanais. Just as the name 

 Acadia has clung to Nova Scotia and is known in our day, so the name 

 of Tanais or Tana, clung to a definite portion of the great plains of 

 Tartary, until late in the sixteenth century. AVhen the city of Tanais 

 became known as Azov, and the river's name was changed to Don, the 

 location of the country was gradually forgotten. But this was after 

 Cabot's day. The following reproduction from Ptolemy^s eighth plate 

 of Europe shows the location of the Tanaitre and of the ancient city of 

 Tanais : (Fig. 1). 



In the library of St. Mark, Venice, there is preserved the only 

 known copy of a Book of Voyages printed at Venice in 1545 ; one of 

 these is a voyage to Tanais, or as it is called, Tana. Through the 

 courteous aid of His Worship the Sindaco (Lord Mayor) of Venice, I 

 havo been enabled to procure a literal transcription of the title page, 

 index of contents and publisher's preface of the volume, as well as the 

 whole of the Voyage to Tanais. This and some of the other voyages 

 had been previously printed. The publisher is Antonio Manuzio. The 

 author of the voyage to Tanais is tho "Magnificent Master Josa])hat 

 Barbaro, Ambass'ador of the Illustrious Eepublic of Venice to Tanais." 

 The very title of the author, read in the original, should be sufficient to 

 prove my contention, — Viagrjio del Magnifico messer Josaphat Barharo, 

 Anibasciatore della Ilhistrissima Republica di Venelia alia Tana. 



Tanais must have been a State or Countr}% not only because an 

 Ambassador is accredited to it, but also because we read Alia Tana 

 not a Tana: just as it is a Parigi, a Londra, not alia Parigi, etc., on the 

 other hand when a state is meant we say. Alia Francia, Ulla Spagna. 

 This form of speech Alia Tana and della Tana is preserved throughout 

 the narrative. After a short preamble in which the author tells us he 

 did not wish to write, but had been induced to do so "by the solicita- 

 tions of one who had the right to command," he says : — 



"In 1436 I first undertook the voyage to Tanais where, now in one 

 part now in another, I passed sixteen years, and I have gone around 

 those parts both by sea and land carefully and with interest." (Del 

 MCCCCXXXVI cominciai ad aihdare al viaggio della Tana : ove a 

 parte a parte son slato per la somma di anni sedici cC- ho circondaio quelle 

 parti, si per mare, come per terra con diligentia, cG quasi curiosità.) 



