Church of S. Lorenzo; and indeed Sansovino bears testimony to the fact
in a confused notice of our Traveller.[24] But there does not seem to
have been any monument to Marco, though the sarcophagus which had been
erected to his father Nicolo, by his own filial care, existed till
near the end of the 16th century in the porch or corridor leading to
the old Church of S. Lorenzo, and bore the inscription: “SEPULTURA
DOMINI NICOLAI PAULO DE CONTRATA S. IOANNIS GRISOSTEMI.” The church
was renewed from its foundations in 1592, and then, probably, the
sarcophagus was cast aside and lost, and with it all certainty as to
the position of the tomb.[25]
[Illustration: Pavement in front of San Lorenzo, Venice.]
There is no portrait of Marco Polo in existence with any claim to
authenticity. The quaint figure which we give in the _Bibliography_,
vol. ii. p. 555, extracted from the earliest printed edition of his
book, can certainly make no such pretension. The oldest one after this
is probably a picture in the collection of Monsignor Badia at Rome, of
which I am now able, by the owner’s courtesy, to give a copy. It is set
down in the catalogue to Titian, but is probably a work of 1600, or
thereabouts, to which the aspect and costume belong. It is inscribed
“_Marcus Polvs Venetvs Totivs Orbis et Indie Peregrator Primus._” Its
history unfortunately cannot be traced, but I believe it came from a
collection at Urbino. A marble statue was erected in his honour by a
family at Venice in the 17th century, and is still to be seen in the
Palazzo Morosini-Gattemburg in the Campo S. Stefano in that city. The
medallion portrait on the wall of the _Sala dello Scudo_ in the ducal
palace, and which was engraved in Bettom’s “Collection of Portraits of
Illustrious Italians,” is a work of imagination painted by Francesco
Griselini in 1761.[26] From this, however, was taken the medal by
Fabris, which was struck in 1847 in honour of the last meeting of the
Italian Congresso Scientifico; and from the medal again is copied,
I believe, the elegant woodcut which adorns the introduction to M.
Pauthier’s edition, though without any information as to its history.
A handsome bust, by Augusto Gamba, has lately been placed among the
illustrious Venetians in the inner arcade of the Ducal Palace.[27]
There is also a mosaic portrait of Polo, opposite the similar portrait
of Columbus in the Municipio at Genoa.
[Illustration: S. Lorenzo as it was in the 15th century]
[Sidenote: Further History of the Polo Family.]