[7] This seems implied in the Elder Marco’s Will (1280): “_Item de bonis quæ me habere contingunt_ de fraternâ Compagniâ _a suprascriptis Nicolao et Matheo Paulo_,” etc. [8] In his Will he terms himself “Ego Marcus Polo quondam de Constantinopoli.” [9] There is no real ground for doubt as to this. All the extant MSS. agree in making Marco fifteen years old when his father returned to Venice in 1269. [10] Baldelli and Lazari say that the Bern MS. specifies 30th April; but this is a mistake. [11] Pipino’s version runs: “Invenit Dominus Nicolaus Paulus uxorem suam esse defunctam, quae in recessu suo fuit praegnans. Invenitque filium, Marcum nomine, qui jam annos xv. habebat aetatis, qui post discessum ipsius de Venetiis natus fuerat de uxore sua praefatâ.” To this Ramusio adds the further particular that the mother died in giving birth to Mark. The interpolation is older even than Pipino’s version, for we find in the rude Latin published by the Société de Géographie “quam cum Venetiis primo recessit praegnantem dimiserat.” But the statement is certainly an _interpolation_, for it does not exist in any of the older texts; nor have we any good reason for believing that it was an _authorised_ interpolation. I suspect it to have been introduced to harmonise with an erroneous date for the commencement of the travels of the two brothers. Lazari prints: “Messer Nicolò trovò che la sua donna era morta, e n’era rimasto un fanciullo di _dodici_ anni per nome Marco, _che il padre non avea veduto mai, perchè non era ancor nato quando egli partì_.” These words have no equivalent in the French Texts, but are taken from one of the Italian MSS. in the Magliabecchian Library, and are I suspect also interpolated. The _dodici_ is pure error (see p. 21 _infra_). [12] The last view is in substance, I find, suggested by Cicogna (ii. 389).