xviii
III.
Perhaps the most noteworthy feature of M. Zotenberg’s long and interesting introduction is a series of extracts from the (as yet unpublished) MS. Diary regularly kept by Galland, the last four volumes (1708–15) of which are preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale. These extracts effectually settle the question of the origin of the interpolated tales, as will be seen from the following abstract.
On the 25th March, 1709, Galland records having that day made the acquaintance of a Maronite scholar, by name Youhenna Diab,[1] who had been brought from Aleppo to Paris by Paul Lucas, the celebrated traveller, and with whom he evidently at once broached the question of the Nights,[2] probably complaining to him
- ↑ Galland calls him “Hanna, c’est à dire Jean Baptiste,” the Arabic Christian equivalent of which is Youhenna and the Muslim Yehya, “surnommé Diab.” Diary, October 25, 1709.
- ↑ At this date Galland had already published the first six (of twelve) volumes of his translation (1704–5) and as far as I can ascertain, in the absence of a reference copy (the British Museum possessing no copy of the original edition), the 7th and 8th volumes were either published or in the press. Vol. viii. was certainly published before the end of the year 1709, by which time the whole of vol. ix. was ready for printing.
