the feats of American engineering: “As there was an ancient and
very fine picture of Christ upon the apse of the Church, it was
thought a great pity that so fine a work should be destroyed. And
so they contrived an ingenious method by which the apse bodily was
transported without injury, picture and all, for a distance of 25
ells, and firmly set upon the foundations where it now exists.”
(_Jacopo de Varagine_ in _Muratori_, vol. ix. 36.)
The inscription on S. Matteo regarding the battle is as
follows:—“_Ad Honorem Dei et Beate Virginis Marie Anno MCCLXXXXVIII
Die Dominico VII Septembris iste Angelus captus fuit in Gulfo
Venetiarum in Civitate Scursole et ibidem fuit prelium Galearum
LXXVI Januensium cum Galeis LXXXXVI Veneciarum. Capte fuerunt
LXXXIIII per Nobilem Virum Dominum Lambam Aurie Capitaneum et
Armiratum tunc Comunis et Populi Janue cum omnibus existentibus
in eisdem, de quibus conduxit Janue homines vivos carceratos VII
cccc et Galeas XVIII, reliquas LXVI fecit cumburi in dicto Gulfo
Veneciarum. Qui obiit Sagone I. MCCCXXIII._” It is not clear to
what the _Angelus_ refers.
[24] _Rampoldi, Ann. Musulm._ ix. 217.
[25] _Jacopo Doria_, p. 280.
[26] _Murat._ xxiii. 1010. I learn from a Genoese gentleman, through
my friend Professor Henry Giglioli (to whose kindness I owe the
transcript of the inscription just given), that a faint tradition
exists as to the place of our traveller’s imprisonment. It is
alleged to have been a massive building, standing between the
_Grazie_ and the Mole, and bearing the name of the _Malapaga_,
which is now a barrack for Doganieri, but continued till
comparatively recent times to be used as a civil prison. “It is
certain,” says my informant, “that men of fame in arms who had
fallen into the power of the Genoese _were_ imprisoned there, and
among others is recorded the name of the Corsican Giudice dalla
Rocca and Lord of Cinarca, who died there in 1312;” a date so
near that of Marco’s imprisonment as to give some interest to the
hypothesis, slender as are its grounds. Another Genoese, however,
indicates as the scene of Marco’s captivity certain old prisons
near the Old Arsenal, in a site still known as the _Vico degli
Schiavi_. (_Celesia, Dante in Liguria_, 1865, p. 43.) [Was not the
place of Polo’s captivity the basement of the _Palazzo del Capitan
del Popolo_, afterwards _Palazzo del Comune al Mare_, where the
Customs (_Dogana_) had their office, and from the 15th century the
_Casa_ or _Palazzo di S. Giorgio?_—H. C.]
[27] The Treaty and some subsidiary documents are printed in the
Genoese _Liber Jurium_, forming a part of the _Monumenta Historiae
Patriae_, published at Turin. (See _Lib. Jur._ II. 344, _seqq._)
Muratori in his Annals has followed John Villani (Bk. VIII. ch. 27)
in representing the terms as highly unfavourable to Venice. But for
this there is no foundation in the documents. And the terms are
stated with substantial accuracy in Navagiero. (_Murat. Script._
xxiii. 1011.)
[28] _Paulin Paris, Les Manuscrits François de la Bibliothèque du Roi_,
ii. 355.
[29] Though there is no precise information as to the birth or death
of this writer, who belonged to a noble family of Lombardy, the
Bellingeri, he can be traced with tolerable certainty as in life in
1289, 1320, and 1334. (See the Introduction to his Chronicle in the
Turin _Monumentà_, _Scriptores_ III.)
[30] There is another MS. of the _Imago Mundi_ at Turin, which has
been printed in the _Monumenta_. The passage about Polo in that
copy differs widely in wording, is much shorter, and contains no
date. But it relates his capture as having taken place at _Là
Glazà_, which I think there can be no doubt is also intended for
Ayas (sometimes called _Giàzza_), a place which in fact is called
_Glaza_ in three of the MSS. of which various readings are given in
the edition of the Société de Géographie (p. 535).
[31]
“_E per meio esse aregordenti
De si grande scacho mato
Correa mille duxenti
Zonto ge novanta e quatro._”
The Armenian Prince Hayton or Héthum has put it under 1293. (See
_Langlois, Mém. sur les Relations de Gênes avec la Petite-Arménie_.)
VII. RUSTICIANO OR RUSTICHELLO OF PISA, MARCO POLO’S FELLOW-PRISONER
AT GENOA, THE SCRIBE WHO WROTE DOWN THE TRAVELS.