alluded to at the mansion in the parish of S. Giovanni Grisostomo,
the court of which was known in his time as the Corte del Millioni;
and indeed he speaks of the Travellers as at once on their arrival
resorting to that mansion as their family residence. Ramusio’s details
have so often proved erroneous that I should not be surprised if this
also should be a mistake. At least we find (so far as I can learn) no
previous intimation that the family were connected with that locality.
The grandfather Andrea is styled of _San Felice_. The will of Maffeo
Polo the younger, made in 1300, which we shall give hereafter in
abstract, appears to be the first document that connects the family
with S. Giovanni Grisostomo. It indeed styles the testator’s father
“the late Nicolo Paulo of the confine of St. John Chrysostom,” but that
only shows what is not disputed, that the Travellers after their return
from the East settled in this locality. And the same will appears
to indicate a surviving connexion with S. Felice, for the priests
and clerks who drew it up and witness it are all of the church of S.
Felice, and it is to the parson of S. Felice and his successor that
Maffeo bequeaths an annuity to procure their prayers for the souls
of his father, his mother, and himself, though after the successor
the annuity is to pass on the same condition to the senior priest of
S. Giovanni Grisostomo. Marco Polo the Elder is in his will described
as of _S. Severo_, as is also his sister-in-law Fiordelisa, and the
document contains no reference to S. Giovanni. On the whole therefore
it seems probable that the Palazzo in the latter parish was purchased
by the Travellers after their return from the East.[1]
[Illustration: Corte del Milione, Venice.]
[Sidenote: Relic of the Casa Polo in the Corte Sabbionera.]