[18] The word rendered Guilds is “Scholarum.” The crafts at Venice were united in corporations called Fraglie or Scholae, each of which had its statutes, its head called the Gastald, and its place of meeting under the patronage of some saint. These acted as societies of mutual aid, gave dowries to poor girls, caused masses to be celebrated for deceased members, joined in public religious processions, etc., nor could any craft be exercised except by members of such a guild. (Romanin, I. 390.)
[19] A few years after Ser Marco’s death (1328) we find the Great Council granting to this Peter the rights of a natural Venetian, as having been a long time at Venice, and well-conducted. (See App. C, Calendar of Documents, No. 13.) This might give some additional colour to M. Pauthier’s supposition that this Peter the Tartar was a faithful servant who had accompanied Messer Marco from the East 30 years before. But yet the supposition is probably unfounded. Slavery and slave-trade were very prevalent at Venice in the Middle Ages, and V. Lazari, a writer who examined a great many records connected therewith, found that by far the greater number of slaves were described as Tartars. There does not seem to be any clear information as to how they were imported, but probably from the factories on the Black Sea, especially Tana after its establishment.
A tax of 5 ducats per head was set on the export of slaves in 1379, and as the revenue so received under the Doge Tommaso Mocenigo (1414–1423) amounted (so says Lazari) to 50,000 ducats, the startling conclusion is that 10,000 slaves yearly were exported! This it is difficult to accept. The slaves were chiefly employed in domestic service, and the records indicate the women to have been about twice as numerous as the men. The highest price recorded is 87 ducats paid for a Russian girl sold in 1429. All the higher prices are for young women; a significant circumstance. With the existence of this system we may safely connect the extraordinary frequence of mention of illegitimate children in Venetian wills and genealogies. (See Lazari, Del Traffico degli Schiavi in Venezia, etc., in Miscellanea di Storia Italiana, I. 463 seqq.) In 1308 the Khan Toktai of Kipchak (see Polo, II. 496), hearing that the Genoese and other Franks were in the habit of carrying off Tartar children to sell, sent a force against Caffa, which was occupied without resistance, the people taking refuge in their ships. The Khan also seized the Genoese property in Sarai. (Heyd. II. 27.)
[20] “Stracium et omne capud massariciorum”; in Scotch phrase “napery and plenishing.” A Venetian statute of 1242 prescribes that a bequest of massariticum shall be held to carry to the legatee all articles of common family use except those of gold and silver plate or jeweller’s work. (See Ducange, sub voce.) Stracci is still used technically in Venice for “household linen.”
[21] In the original aureas libras quinque. According to Marino Sanudo the Younger (Vite dei Dogi in Muratori, xxii. 521) this should be pounds or lire of aureole, the name of a silver coin struck by and named after the Doge Aurio Mastropietro (1178–1192): “Ancora fu fatta una Moneta d’argento che si chiamava Aureola per la casata del Doge; è quella Moneta che i Notai de Venezia mettevano di pena sotto i loro instrumenti.” But this was a vulgar error. An example of the penalty of 5 pounds of gold is quoted from a decree of 960; and the penalty is sometimes expressed “auri purissimi librae 5.” A coin called the lira d’oro or redonda is alleged to have been in use before the ducat was introduced. (See Gallicciolli, II. 16.) But another authority seems to identify the lira a oro with the lira dei grossi. (See Zanetti, Nuova Racc. delle Monete &c. d’Italia, 1775. I. 308.)
[22] We give a photographic reduction of the original document. This, and the other two Polo Wills already quoted, had come into the possession of the Noble Filippo Balbi, and were by him presented in our own time to the St. Mark’s Library. They are all on parchment, in writing of that age, and have been officially examined and declared to be originals. They were first published by Cicogna, Iscrizioni Veneziane, III. 489–493. We give Marco’s in the original language, line for line with the facsimile, in Appendix C.
There is no signature, as may be seen, except those of the Witnesses and the Notary. The sole presence of a Notary was held to make a deed valid, and from about the middle of the 13th century in Italy it is common to find no actual signature (even of witnesses) except that of the Notary. The peculiar flourish before the Notary’s name is what is called the Tabellionato, a fanciful distinctive monogram which each Notary adopted. Marco’s Will is unfortunately written in a very cramp hand with many contractions. The other two Wills (of Marco the Elder and Maffeo) are in beautiful and clear Gothic penmanship.
[23] We have noticed formerly ([pp. 14–15], note) the recent discovery of a document bearing what was supposed to be the autograph signature of our Traveller. The document in question is the Minute of a Resolution of the Great Council, attested by the signatures of three members, of whom the last is Marcus Paullo. But the date alone, 11th March, 1324, is sufficient to raise the gravest doubts as to this signature being that of our Marco. And further examination, as I learn from a friend at Venice, has shown that the same name occurs in connection with analogous entries on several subsequent occasions up to the middle of the century. I presume that this Marco Polo is the same that is noticed in our Appendix B, II. as a voter in the elections of the Doges Marino Faliero and Giovanni Gradenigo. I have not been able to ascertain his relation to either branch of the Polo family; but I suspect that he belonged to that of S. Geremia, of which there was certainly a Marco about the middle of the century.
[24] “Under the angiporta (of S. Lorenzo) [see plate] is buried that Marco Polo surnamed Milione, who wrote the Travels in the New World, and who was the first before Christopher Columbus to discover new countries. No faith was put in him because of the extravagant things that he recounted; but in the days of our Fathers Columbus augmented belief in him, by discovering that part of the world which eminent men had heretofore judged to be uninhabited.” (Venezia ... Descritta, etc., f. 23 v.) Marco Barbaro attests the same inscription in his Genealogies (copy in Museo Civico at Venice).
[25] Cicogna, II. 385.