The authorship and date of HARL. MS. 6249, ff. 106V-110

摘要

HARL. MS. 6249 contains an anonymous andundated general history of the world. Part ofthis manuscript is printed in Memorials of theEmpire of Japan in the XVI and XVII Centuries (Hakluyt Society: London, 1850), but theeditor of this book, Thomas Rundall, failed toidentify its author. Quoting a passage from themanuscript, he merely suggests that it waswritten in the reign of Elizabeth I. Themanuscript is divided into 'The firste booke ofRelations of Moderne states And first of thosewhich are in Europe' and 'Of therelations of Moderne States The second booke.Asia' (f.56V), and in the second book isincluded a Japanese relation 'The Kinge ofIaponia'. By examining sources of the Japaneserelation, I have found that this portion of themanuscript is attributable to Robert Johnson,that it is based on Giovanni Botero's Relaztoni universali (1592?95), and that it had beencompleted between 1595 and 1601.