The document next mentioned was found in as strange a site, viz., the _Casa degli Esposti_ or Foundling Hospital, which possesses similar muniments. This also I owe to Comm. Barozzi, who had noted it some years before, when commencing an arrangement of the archives of the Institution. [12] The Legal Year at Venice began on the 1st of March. And 1324 was 7th of the Indiction. Hence the date is, according to the modern Calendar, 1324. [13] Marsden says of Moreta and Fantina, the only daughters named by Ramusio, that these may be thought rather familiar terms of endearment than baptismal names. This is a mistake however. _Fantina_ is from one of the parochial saints of Venice, S. Fantino, and the male name was borne by sundry Venetians, among others by a son of Henry Dandolo’s. Moreta is perhaps a variation of Maroca, which seems to have been a family name among the Polos. We find also the male name of Bellela, written _Bellello_, _Bellero_, _Belletto_. [14] The _Decima_ went to the Bishop of Castello (eventually converted into Patriarch of Venice) to divide between himself, the Clergy, the Church, and the Poor. It became a source of much bad feeling, which came to a head after the plague of 1348, when some families had to pay the tenth three times within a very short space. The existing Bishop agreed to a composition, but his successor Paolo Foscari (1367) claimed that on the death of every citizen an exact inventory should be made, and a full tithe levied. The Signory fought hard with the Bishop, but he fled to the Papal Court and refused all concession. After his death in 1376 a composition was made for 5500 ducats yearly. (_Romanin_, II. 406; III. 161, 165.) [15] There is a difficulty about estimating the value of these sums from the variety of Venice pounds or _lire_. Thus the _Lira dei piccoli_ was reckoned 3 to the ducat or zecchin, the _Lira ai grossi_ 2 to the ducat, but the _Lira_ dei _grossi_ or _Lira d’imprestidi_ was equal to 10 ducats, or (allowing for higher value of silver then) about 3_l._ 15_s._; a little more than the equivalent of the then Pound sterling. This last money is _specified_ in some of the bequests, as in the 20 soldi (or 1 lira) to St. Lorenzo, and in the annuity of 8 lire to Polo’s wife; but it seems doubtful what money is meant when _libra_ only or _libra denariorum venetorum_ is used. And this doubt is not new. Gallicciolli relates that in 1232 Giacomo Menotto left to the Church of S. Cassiano as an annuity _libras denariorum venetorum quatuor_. Till 1427 the church received the income as of _lire dei piccoli_, but on bringing a suit on the subject it was adjudged that _lire ai grossi_ were to be understood. (_Delle Mem. Venet. Ant._ II. 18.) This story, however, cuts both ways, and does not decide our doubt.