matter properly biographical in relation to the quarter century during
which Marco Polo survived the Genoese captivity.
[Sidenote: Death of Marco’s Father before 1300. Will of his brother
Maffeo.]
We have seen that he would probably reach Venice in the course of
August, 1299. Whether he found his aged father alive is not known; but
we know at least that a year later (31st August, 1300) Messer Nicolo
was no longer in life.
This we learn from the Will of the younger Maffeo, Marco’s brother,
which bears the date just named, and of which we give an abstract
below.[1] It seems to imply strong regard for the testator’s brother
Marco, who is made inheritor of the bulk of the property, failing the
possible birth of a son. I have already indicated some conjectural
deductions from this document. I may add that the terms of the second
clause, as quoted in the note, seem to me to throw considerable doubt
on the genealogy which bestows a large family of sons upon this brother
Maffeo. If he lived to have such a family it seems improbable that the
draft which he thus left in the hands of a notary, to be converted into
a Will in the event of his death (a curious example of the validity
attaching to all acts of notaries in those days), should never have
been superseded, but should actually have been so converted after his
death, as the existence of the parchment seems to prove. But for this
circumstance we might suppose the Marcolino mentioned in the ensuing
paragraph to have been a son of the younger Maffeo.
Messer Maffeo, the uncle, was, we see, alive at this time. We do not
know the year of his death. But it is alluded to by Friar Pipino in the
Preamble to his Translation of the Book, supposed to have been executed
about 1315–1320; and we learn from a document in the Venetian archives
(see p. 77) that it must have been previous to 1318, and subsequent
to February 1309, the date of his last Will. The Will itself is not
known to be extant, but from the reference to it in this document we
learn that he left 1000 _lire_ of public debt[2] (_? imprestitorum_)
to a certain Marco Polo, called _Marcolino_. The relationship of this
Marco to old Maffeo is not stated, but we may suspect him to have been
an illegitimate son. [Marcolino was a son of Nicolo, son of Marco the
Elder; see vol. ii., _Calendar_, No. 6.—H. C.]
[Sidenote: Documentary notices of Polo at this time. The sobriquet of
Milione.]