[2] Campidoglio Veneto of Cappellari (MS. in St. Mark’s Lib.), quoting “the Venetian Annals of Giulio Faroldi.”
[3] The Genealogies of Marco Barbaro specify 1033 as the year of the migration to Venice; on what authority does not appear (MS. copy in Museo Civico at Venice).
[4] Cappellari, u.s., and Barbaro. In the same century we find (1125, 1195) indications of Polos at Torcello, and of others (1160) at Equileo, and (1179, 1206) Lido Maggiore; in 1154 a Marco Polo of Rialto. Contemporary with these is a family of Polos (1139, 1183, 1193, 1201) at Chioggia (Documents and Lists of Documents from various Archives at Venice).
[5] See Appendix C, Nos. 4, 5, and 16. It was supposed that an autograph of Marco as member of the Great Council had been discovered, but this proves to be a mistake, as will be explained further on (see [p. 74], note). In those days the demarcation between Patrician and non-Patrician at Venice, where all classes shared in commerce, all were (generally speaking) of one race, and where there were neither castles, domains, nor trains of horsemen, formed no wide gulf. Still it is interesting to establish the verity of the old tradition of Marco’s technical nobility.
[6] Marco’s seniority rests only on the assertion of Ramusio, who also calls Maffeo older than Nicolo. But in Marco the Elder’s Will these two are always (3 times) specified as “Nicolaus et Matheus.”
[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.