Asia -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Mongols -- History; Polo, Marco, 1254-1323?; Voyages and travels
The documents show a few other incidents which may be briefly noted.
In 1326 we have the record of a charge against one Zanino Grioni for
insulting Donna Moreta in the Campo of San Vitale; a misdemeanour
punished by the Council of Forty with two months’ imprisonment.
[Illustration: Mosaic Portrait of Marco Polo at Genoa.]
In March, 1328, Marco Polo, called Marcolino, of St. John Chrysostom
(see p. _66_), represents before the _Domini Advocatores_ of the
Republic that certain _imprestita_ that had belonged to the late Maffeo
Polo the Elder, had been alienated and transferred in May 1318, by
the late Marco Polo of St. John Chrysostom and since his death by his
heirs, without regard to the rights of the said Marcolino, to whom the
said Messer Maffeo had bequeathed 1000 _lire_ by his will executed
on 6th February, 1308 (_i.e._ 1309). The Advocatores find that the
transfer was to that extent unjust and improper, and they order that
to the same extent it should be revoked and annulled. Two months later
the Lady Donata makes rather an unpleasant figure before the Council
of Forty. It would seem that on the claim of Messer Bertuccio Quirino
a mandate of sequestration had been issued by the Court of Requests
affecting certain articles in the Ca’ Polo; including two bags of
money which had been tied and sealed, but left in custody of the Lady
Donata. The sum so sealed was about 80 _lire_ of grossi (300_l._ in
silver value), but when opened only 45 _lire_ and 22 _grossi_ (about
170_l._) were found therein, and the Lady was accused of abstracting
the balance _non bono modo_. Probably she acted, as ladies sometimes
do, on a strong sense of her own rights, and a weak sense of the claims
of law. But the Council pronounced against her, ordering restitution,
and a fine of 200 _lire_ over and above “_ut ceteris transeat in
exemplum._”[32]
It will have been seen that there is nothing in the amounts mentioned
in Marco’s will to bear out the large reports as to his wealth, though
at the same time there is no positive ground for a deduction to the
contrary.[33]
The mention in two of the documents of Agnes Loredano as the sister
of the Lady Donata suggests that the latter may have belonged to the
Loredano family, but as it does not appear whether Agnes was maid or
wife this remains uncertain.[34]
Respecting the further history of the family there is nothing certain,
nor can we give unhesitating faith to Ramusio’s statement that the
last male descendant of the Polos of S. Giovanni Grisostomo was Marco,
who died Castellano of Verona in 1417 (according to others, 1418,
or 1425),[35] and that the family property then passed to Maria (or
_Anna_, as she is styled in a MS. statement furnished to me from
Venice), who was married in 1401 to Benedetto Cornaro, and again in
1414 to Azzo Trevisan. Her descendant in the fourth generation by the
latter was Marc Antonio Trevisano,[36] who was chosen Doge in 1553.
[Illustration: Arms of the Trevisan family.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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