The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano
49. From the short series of documents recently alluded to,[28] we
1289 words | Chapter 157
gather all that we know of the remaining history of Marco Polo’s
immediate family. We have seen in his will an indication that the two
elder daughters, Fantina and Bellela, were married before his death. In
1333 we find the youngest, Moreta, also a married woman, and Bellela
deceased. In 1336 we find that their mother Donata had died in the
interval. We learn, too, that Fantina’s husband was MARCO BRAGADINO,
and Moreta’s, RANUZZO DOLFINO.[29] The name of Bellela’s husband does
not appear.
Fantina’s husband is probably the Marco Bragadino, son of Pietro, who
in 1346 is mentioned to have been sent as Provveditore-Generale to
act against the Patriarch of Acquileia.[30] And in 1379 we find Donna
Fantina herself, presumably in widowhood, assessed as a resident of S.
Giovanni Grisostomo, on the _Estimo_ or forced loan for the Genoese
war, at 1300 _lire_, whilst Pietro Bragadino of the same parish—her son
as I imagine—is assessed at 1500 _lire_.[31] [See vol. ii., _Calendar_.]
The documents show a few other incidents which may be briefly noted.
In 1326 we have the record of a charge against one Zanino Grioni for
insulting Donna Moreta in the Campo of San Vitale; a misdemeanour
punished by the Council of Forty with two months’ imprisonment.
[Illustration: Mosaic Portrait of Marco Polo at Genoa.]
In March, 1328, Marco Polo, called Marcolino, of St. John Chrysostom
(see p. _66_), represents before the _Domini Advocatores_ of the
Republic that certain _imprestita_ that had belonged to the late Maffeo
Polo the Elder, had been alienated and transferred in May 1318, by
the late Marco Polo of St. John Chrysostom and since his death by his
heirs, without regard to the rights of the said Marcolino, to whom the
said Messer Maffeo had bequeathed 1000 _lire_ by his will executed
on 6th February, 1308 (_i.e._ 1309). The Advocatores find that the
transfer was to that extent unjust and improper, and they order that
to the same extent it should be revoked and annulled. Two months later
the Lady Donata makes rather an unpleasant figure before the Council
of Forty. It would seem that on the claim of Messer Bertuccio Quirino
a mandate of sequestration had been issued by the Court of Requests
affecting certain articles in the Ca’ Polo; including two bags of
money which had been tied and sealed, but left in custody of the Lady
Donata. The sum so sealed was about 80 _lire_ of grossi (300_l._ in
silver value), but when opened only 45 _lire_ and 22 _grossi_ (about
170_l._) were found therein, and the Lady was accused of abstracting
the balance _non bono modo_. Probably she acted, as ladies sometimes
do, on a strong sense of her own rights, and a weak sense of the claims
of law. But the Council pronounced against her, ordering restitution,
and a fine of 200 _lire_ over and above “_ut ceteris transeat in
exemplum._”[32]
It will have been seen that there is nothing in the amounts mentioned
in Marco’s will to bear out the large reports as to his wealth, though
at the same time there is no positive ground for a deduction to the
contrary.[33]
The mention in two of the documents of Agnes Loredano as the sister
of the Lady Donata suggests that the latter may have belonged to the
Loredano family, but as it does not appear whether Agnes was maid or
wife this remains uncertain.[34]
Respecting the further history of the family there is nothing certain,
nor can we give unhesitating faith to Ramusio’s statement that the
last male descendant of the Polos of S. Giovanni Grisostomo was Marco,
who died Castellano of Verona in 1417 (according to others, 1418,
or 1425),[35] and that the family property then passed to Maria (or
_Anna_, as she is styled in a MS. statement furnished to me from
Venice), who was married in 1401 to Benedetto Cornaro, and again in
1414 to Azzo Trevisan. Her descendant in the fourth generation by the
latter was Marc Antonio Trevisano,[36] who was chosen Doge in 1553.
[Illustration: Arms of the Trevisan family.]
The genealogy recorded by Marco Barbaro, as drawn up from documents
by Ramusio, makes the Castellano of Verona a grandson of our Marco by
a son Maffeo, whom we may safely pronounce not to have existed, and
makes Maria the daughter of Maffeo, Marco’s brother—that is to say,
makes a lady marry in 1414 and have children, whose father was born
in 1271 at the very latest! The genealogy is given in several other
ways, but as I have satisfied myself that they all (except perhaps
this of Barbaro’s, which we see to be otherwise erroneous) confound
together the two distinct families of Polo of S. Geremia and Polo of
S. Giov. Grisostomo, I reserve my faith, and abstain from presenting
them. Assuming that the Marco or Marcolino Polo, spoken of in the
preceding page, was a near relation (as is probable, though perhaps
an illegitimate one), he is the only male descendant of old Andrea of
San Felice whom we can indicate as having survived Marco himself; and
from a study of the links in the professed genealogies I think it not
unlikely that both Marco the Castellano of Verona and Maria Trevisan
belonged to the branch of S. Geremia.[37] [See vol. ii., _App. C_, p.
510.]
[Illustration: The Pseudo Marco Polo at Canton.]
[49. _bis._—It is interesting to note some of the _reliques_ left by
our traveller.
I. The unfortunate Doge of Venice, Marino Faliero, seems to have
possessed many souvenirs of Marco Polo, and among them two manuscripts,
one in the handwriting of his celebrated fellow-citizen(?), and one
adorned with miniatures. M. Julius von Schlosser has reprinted (_Die
ältesten Medaillen und die Antike_, Bd. XVIII., _Jahrb. d. Kunsthist.
Samml. d. Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses_, Vienna, 1897, pp. 42–43) from
the _Bulletino di arti, industrie e curiosità veneziane_, III.,
1880–81, p. 101,[38] the inventory of the curiosities kept in the “Red
Chamber” of Marino Faliero’s palace in the Parish of the SS. Apostles;
we give the following abstract of it:—
Anno ab incarnacione domini nostri Jesu Christi 1351° indictione
sexta mensis aprilis. Inuentarium rerum qui sunt in camera rubea
domi habitationis clarissimi domini MARINI FALETRO de confinio SS.
Apostolorum, scriptum per me Johannem, presbiterum, dicte ecclesie.
• • • • •
_Item_ alia capsaleta cum ogiis auri et argenti, inter quos unum
anulum con inscriptione que dicit: _Ciuble Can Marco Polo_, et unum
torques cum multis animalibus Tartarorum sculptis, que res donum
dedit predictus MARCUS cuidam Faletrorum.
• • • • •
_Item_ 2 capsalete de corio albo cum variis rebus auri et argenti,
quas habuit praedictus MARCUS a Barbarorum rege.
• • • • •
_Item_ 1 ensem mirabilem, qui habet 3 enses simul, quem habuit in
suis itineribus praedictus MARCUS.
• • • • •
_Item_ 1 tenturam de pannis indicis, quam habuit praedictus MARCUS.
_Item_ de itineribus MARCI praedicti liber in corio albo cum multis
figuris.
_Item_ aliud volumen quod vocatur _de locis mirabilibus Tartarorum,
scriptum manu praedicti_ MARCI.
• • • • •
II. There is kept at the Louvre, in the very valuable collection
of China Ware given by M. Ernest Grandidier, a white porcelain
incense-burner said to come from Marco Polo. This incense-burner, which
belonged to Baron Davillier, who received it, as a present, from one of
the keepers of the Treasury of St. Mark’s at Venice, is an octagonal
_ting_ from the Fo-kien province, and of the time of the Sung Dynasty.
By the kind permission of M. P. Grandidier, we reproduce it from Pl.
II. 6, of the _Céramique chinoise_, Paris, 1894, published by this
learned amateur.—H. C.]
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[1] 1. The Will is made in prospect of his voyage to Crete.
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