The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano
24. The Court which was known in the 16th century as the Corte del
1355 words | Chapter 128
Millioni has been generally understood to be that now known as the
Corte Sabbionera, and here is still pointed out a relic of Marco Polo’s
mansion. [Indeed it is called now (1899) _Corte del Milione_; see p.
_30_.—H. C.]
M. Pauthier’s edition is embellished with a good engraving which
purports to represent the House of Marco Polo. But he has been misled.
His engraving in fact exhibits, at least as the prominent feature, an
embellished representation of a small house which exists on the _west
side_ of the Sabbionera, and which had at one time perhaps that pointed
style of architecture which his engraving shows, though its present
decoration is paltry and unreal. But it is on the _north side_ of the
Court, and on the foundations now occupied by the Malibran theatre,
that Venetian tradition and the investigations of Venetian antiquaries
concur in indicating the site of the Casa Polo. At the end of the
16th century a great fire destroyed the Palazzo,[2] and under the
description of “an old mansion ruined from the foundation” it passed
into the hands of one Stefano Vecchia, who sold it in 1678 to Giovanni
Carlo Grimani. He built on the site of the ruins a theatre which was
in its day one of the largest in Italy, and was called the Theatre
of S. Giovanni Grisostomo; afterwards the _Teatro Emeronitio_. When
modernized in our own day the proprietors gave it the name of Malibran,
in honour of that famous singer, and this it still bears.[3]
[In 1881, the year of the Venice International Geographical Congress, a
Tablet was put up on the Theatre with the following inscription:—
QVI FURONO LE CASE
DI
MARCO POLO
CHE VIAGGIÒ LE PIÙ LONTANE REGIONI DELL’ASIA
E LE DESCRISSE
PER DECRETO DEL COMUNE
MDCCCLXXXI].
There is still to be seen on the north side of the Court an arched
doorway in Italo-Byzantine style, richly sculptured with scrolls,
disks, and symbolical animals, and on the wall above the doorway is a
cross similarly ornamented.[4] The style and the decorations are those
which were usual in Venice in the 13th century. The arch opens into a
passage from which a similar doorway at the other end, also retaining
some scantier relics of decoration, leads to the entrance of the
Malibran Theatre. Over the archway in the Corte Sabbionera the building
rises into a kind of tower. This, as well as the sculptured arches and
cross, Signor Casoni, who gave a good deal of consideration to the
subject, believed to be a relic of the old Polo House. But the tower
(which Pauthier’s view does show) is now entirely modernized.[5]
[Illustration: Malibran Theatre, Venice.]
[Illustration: The site of the CA’ POLO.
Fig. A. From the Dürer Map. A.D. 1500.
Fig. B. From Map by Ludovico Ughi. A.D. 1729 Scale 1 to 2500.
Fig. C. From Recent Map. Scale 1 to 1315.]
Other remains of Byzantine sculpture, which are probably fragments of
the decoration of the same mansion, are found imbedded in the walls of
neighbouring houses.[6] It is impossible to determine anything further
as to the form or extent of the house of the time of the Polos, but
some slight idea of its appearance about the year 1500 may be seen
in the extract (fig. A) which we give from the famous pictorial map
of Venice attributed erroneously to Albert Dürer. The state of the
buildings in the last century is shown in (fig. B) an extract from the
fine Map of Ughi; and their present condition in one (fig. C) reduced
from the Modern Official Map of the Municipality.
[Coming from the Church of S. G. Grisostomo to enter the calle del
Teatro on the left and the passage (_Sottoportico_) leading to the
_Corte del Milione_, one has in front of him a building with a door of
the epoch of the Renaissance; it was the office of the _provveditori_
of silk; on the architrave are engraved the words:
PROVISORES SERICI
and below, above the door, is the Tablet which] in the year 1827 the
Abate Zenier caused to be put up with this inscription:—
AEDES PROXIMA THALIAE CVLTVI MODO ADDICTA
MARCI POLO P. V. ITINERVM FAMA PRAECLARI
JAM HABITATIO FVIT.
[Sidenote: Recent corroboration as to the traditional site of the Casa
Polo.]
24_a_. I believe that of late years some doubts have been thrown on
the tradition of the site indicated as that of the Casa Polo, though
I am not aware of the grounds of such doubts. But a document recently
discovered at Venice by Comm. Barozzi, one of a series relating to the
testamentary estate of Marco Polo, goes far to confirm the tradition.
This is the copy of a technical definition of two pieces of house
property adjoining the property of Marco Polo and his brother Stephen,
which were sold to Marco Polo by his wife Donata[7] in June 1321.
Though the definition is not decisive, from the rarity of topographical
references and absence of points of the compass, the description of
Donata’s tenements as standing on the Rio (presumably that of S.
Giovanni Grisostomo) on one side, opening by certain porticoes and
stairs on the other to the Court and common alley leading to the Church
of S. Giovanni Grisostomo, and abutting in two places on the CA’ POLO,
the property of her husband and Stefano, will apply perfectly to a
building occupying the western portion of the area on which now stands
the Theatre, and perhaps forming the western side of a Court of which
Casa Polo formed the other three sides.[8]
[Illustration: Entrance to the Corte del Milione, Venice.]
We know nothing more of Polo till we find him appearing a year or two
later in rapid succession as the Captain of a Venetian Galley, as a
prisoner of war, and as an author.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Marco Barbaro’s story related at p. _25_ speaks of the Ca’ Million
as _built_ by the travellers.
From a list of parchments existing in the archives of the _Casa di
Ricovero_, or Great Poor House, at Venice, Comm. Berchet obtained
the following indication:—
“_No. 94. Marco Galetti invests_ Marco Polo _S. of_ Nicolo
_with the ownership of his possessions_ (beni) _in_ S. Giovanni
Grisostomo; _10 September, 1319; drawn up by the Notary Nicolo,
priest of S. Canciano._”
This document would perhaps have thrown light on the matter, but
unfortunately recent search by several parties has failed to
trace it. [The document has been discovered since: see vol. ii.,
_Calendar_, No. 6.—H. C.]
[2] ——“Sua casa che era posta nel confin di S. Giovanni Chrisostomo,
_che hor fà l’anno s’abbrugiò totalmente_, con gran danno di
molti.” (_Doglioní, Hist. Venetiana_, Ven. 1598, pp. 161–162.)
“1596. 7 _Nov. Senato_ (Arsenal ... ix c. 159 t).
“Essendo conveniente usar qualche ricognizione a quelli della
maestranza dell’Arsenal nostro, che prontamente sono concorsi all’
incendio occorso ultimamente a S. Zuane Grizostomo nelli stabeli
detti di CA’ MILION dove per la relazion fatta nell collegio nostro
dalli patroni di esso Arsenal hanno nell’estinguere il foco
prestato ogni buon servitio....”—(Comm. by Cav. Cecchetti through
Comm. Berchet.)
[3] See a paper by G. C. (the Engineer Giovanni Casoni) in _Teatro
Emeronitio Almanacco per l’Anno 1835_.
[4] This Cross is engraved by Mr. Ruskin in vol. ii. of the _Stones of
Venice_: see p. 139, and Pl. xi. Fig. 4.
[5] Casoni’s only doubt was whether the _Corte del Millioni_ was what
is now the Sabbionera, or the interior area of the theatre. The
latter seems most probable.
One Illustration of this volume, p. 1, shows the archway in the
Corte Sabbionera, and also the decorations of the soffit.
[6] See _Ruskin_, iii. 320.
[7] Comm. Barozzi writes: “Among us, contracts between husband and wife
are and were very common, and recognized by law. The wife sells to
the husband property not included in dowry, or that she may have
inherited, just as any third person might.”
[8] See Appendix C, No. 16.
V. DIGRESSION CONCERNING THE WAR-GALLEYS OF THE
MEDITERRANEAN STATES IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Sidenote: Arrangement of the Rowers in Mediæval Galleys: a separate
oar to every man.]
Reading Tips
Use arrow keys to navigate
Press 'N' for next chapter
Press 'P' for previous chapter