Volume I Part 32 (2/2)
[30] _Cappellari_ (see p. 77, footnote) under _Bragadino_.
[31] Ibid. and _Gallicciolli_, II. 146.
[32] The _lire_ of the fine are not specified; but probably _ai grossi_, which would be = 37_l._ 10_s._; not, we hope, _dei_ grossi!
[33] Yet, if the family were so wealthy as tradition represents, it is strange that Marco's brother Maffeo, _after_ receiving a share of his father's property, should have possessed barely 10,000 _lire_, probably equivalent to 5000 ducats at most. (See p. 65, supra.)
[34] An Agnes Loredano, Abbess of S. Maria delle Vergini, died in 1397.
(_Cicogna_, V. 91 and 629.) The interval of 61 years makes it somewhat improbable that it should be the same.
[35] In the _Museo Civico_ (No. 2271 of the Cicogna collection) there is a commission addressed by the Doge Michiel Steno in 1408, ”_n.o.bili Viro Marcho Paulo_,” nominating him Podesta of Arostica (a Castello of the Vicentino). This is probably the same Marco.
[36] The descent runs: (1) Azzo = Maria Polo; (2) Febo, Captain at Padua; (3) Zaccaria, Senator; (4) Domenico, Procurator of St. Mark's; (5) Marc' Antonio, Doge (_Cappellari_, _Campidoglio Veneto_, MS. St.
Mark's Lib.).
Marc' Antonio _nolebat ducari_ and after election desired to renounce.
His friends persuaded him to retain office, but he lived scarcely a year after. (_Cicogna_, IV. 566.) [See p. 8.]
[37] In Appendix B will be found tabulated all the facts that seem to be positively ascertained as to the Polo genealogies.
In the Venetian archives occurs a procuration executed by the Doge in favour of the _n.o.bilis Vir_ SER MARCO PAULO that he may present himself before the king of Sicily; under date, Venice 9th November, 1342. And some years later we have in the Sicilian Archives an order by King Lewis of Sicily, directed to the Maestri Procuratori of Messina, which grants to MARCO POLO of Venice, on account of services rendered to the king's court, the privilege of free import and export at the port of Messina, without payment of customs of goods to the amount annually of 20 ounces. Dated in Catania 13th January, 1346 (1347?).
For the former notice I am indebted to the courtesy of Signor B.
Cecchetti of the Venetian Archives, who cites it as ”transcribed in the _Commemor._ IV. p. 5”; for the latter to that of the Abate Carini of the _Reale Archivio_ at Palermo; it is in _Archivio della Regia Cancellaria_ 1343-1357, f. 58.
The mission of this MARCO POLO is mentioned also in a rescript of the Sicilian king Peter II., dated Messina, 14th November, 1340, in reference to certain claims of Venice, about which the said Marco appeared as the Doge's amba.s.sador. This is printed in F. TESTA, _De Vita et Rebus Gestis Federici II., Siciliae Regis_, Panormi, 1775, pp.
267 seqq. The Sicilian Antiquary Rosario Gregorio identifies the Envoy with our Marco, dead long before. (See _Opere scelte del Canon Ros.
Gregorio_, Palermo, 1845, 3za ediz., p. 352.)
It is possible that this Marco, who from the latter notice seems to have been engaged in mercantile affairs, may have been the Marcolino above mentioned, but it is perhaps on the whole more probable that this _n.o.bilis vir_ is the Marco spoken of in the note at p. 74.
[38] _La Collezione del Doge Marin Faliero e i Tesori di Marco Polo_, pp. 98-103. I have seen this article.--H. C.
IX. MARCO POLO'S BOOK; AND THE LANGUAGE IN WHICH IT WAS FIRST WRITTEN.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Porcelain Incense Burner, from the Louvre]
[Sidenote: General statement of what the Book contains.]
50. The Book itself consists essentially of Two Parts. _First_, of a Prologue, as it is termed, the only part which is actual personal narrative, and which relates, in a very interesting but far too brief manner, the circ.u.mstances which led the two elder Polos to the Kaan's Court, and those of their second journey with Mark, and of their return to Persia through the Indian Seas. _Secondly_, of a long series of chapters of very unequal length, descriptive of notable sights and products, of curious manners and remarkable events, relating to the different nations and states of Asia, but, above all, to the Emperor Kublai, his court, wars, and administration. A series of chapters near the close treats in a verbose and monotonous manner of sundry wars that took place between the various branches of the House of Chinghiz in the latter half of the 13th century. This last series is either omitted or greatly curtailed in all the copies and versions except one; a circ.u.mstance perfectly accounted for by the absence of interest as well as value in the bulk of these chapters.
Indeed, desirous though I have been to give the Traveller's work complete, and sharing the dislike that every man who _uses_ books must bear to abridgments, I have felt that it would be sheer waste and dead-weight to print these chapters in full.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Temple of 500 Genii at Canton _after a Drawing by_ FELIX REGAMEY]
This second and main portion of the Work is in its oldest forms undivided, the chapters running on consecutively to the end.[1] In some very early Italian or Venetian version, which Friar Pipino translated into Latin, it was divided into three Books, and this convenient division has generally been adhered to. We have adopted M. Pauthier's suggestion in making the final series of chapters, chiefly historical, into a Fourth.
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