The Genoese were
imprisoned there, and among others is recorded the name of the
Corsican Giudice dalla Rocca and Lord of Cinarca, who died there in
1312;" a date so near that of Marco's imprisonment as to give some
interest to the hypothesis, slender as are its grounds. Another
Genoese, however, indicates as the scene of Marco's captivity certain
old prisons near the Old Arsenal, in a site still known as the Vico
degli Schiavi. (Celesia, Dante in Liguria, 1865, p. 43.) [Was not
the place of Polo's captivity the basement of the Palazzo del Capitan
del Popolo, afterwards Palazzo del Comune al Mare, where the
Customs (Dogana) had their office, and from the 15th century the
Casa or Palazzo di S. Giorgio? - H. C.]
[27] The Treaty and some subsidiary documents are printed in the Genoese
Liber Jurium, forming a part of the Monumenta Historiae Patriae,
published at Turin. (See Lib. Jur. II. 344, seqq.) Muratori in his
Annals has followed John Villani (Bk. VIII. ch. 27) in representing
the terms as highly unfavourable to Venice. But for this there is no
foundation in the documents. And the terms are stated with substantial
accuracy in Navagiero. (Murat. Script. xxiii. 1011.)
[28] Paulin Paris, Les Manuscrits Francois de la Bibliotheque du Roi,
ii. 355.
[29] Though there is no precise information as to the birth or death of
this writer, who belonged to a noble family of Lombardy, the
Bellingeri, he can be traced with tolerable certainty as in life in
1289, 1320, and 1334. (See the Introduction to his Chronicle in the
Turin Monumenta, Scriptores III.)
[30] There is another MS. of the Imago Mundi at Turin, which has been
printed in the Monumenta. The passage about Polo in that copy
differs widely in wording, is much shorter, and contains no date. But
it relates his capture as having taken place at La Glaza, which I
think there can be no doubt is also intended for Ayas (sometimes
called Giazza), a place which in fact is called Glaza in three of
the MSS. of which various readings are given in the edition of the
Societe de Geographie (p. 535).
[31] "E per meio esse aregordenti
De si grande scacho mato
Correa mille duxenti
Zonto ge novanta e quatro."
The Armenian Prince Hayton or Hethum has put it under 1293. (See
Langlois, Mem. sur les Relations de Genes avec la Petite-Armenie.)
VII. RUSTICIANO OR RUSTICHELLO OF PISA, MARCO POLO'S FELLOW-PRISONER AT
GENOA, THE SCRIBE WHO WROTE DOWN THE TRAVELS.
38. We have now to say something of that Rusticiano to whom all who value
Polo's book are so much indebted.
