VIII. NOTICES OF MARCO POLO'S HISTORY, AFTER THE TERMINATION OF HIS
IMPRISONMENT AT GENOA.
43. A few very disconnected notices are all that can be collected of matter
properly biographical in relation to the quarter century during which Marco
Polo survived the Genoese captivity.
[Sidenote: Death of Marco's Father before 1300. Will of his brother
Maffeo.]
We have seen that he would probably reach Venice in the course of August,
1299. Whether he found his aged father alive is not known; but we know at
least that a year later (31st August, 1300) Messer Nicolo was no longer in
life.
This we learn from the Will of the younger Maffeo, Marco's brother, which
bears the date just named, and of which we give an abstract below.[1] It
seems to imply strong regard for the testator's brother Marco, who is made
inheritor of the bulk of the property, failing the possible birth of a
son. I have already indicated some conjectural deductions from this
document. I may add that the terms of the second clause, as quoted in the
note, seem to me to throw considerable doubt on the genealogy which
bestows a large family of sons upon this brother Maffeo. If he lived to
have such a family it seems improbable that the draft which he thus left
in the hands of a notary, to be converted into a Will in the event of his
death (a curious example of the validity attaching to all acts of notaries
in those days), should never have been superseded, but should actually
have been so converted after his death, as the existence of the parchment
seems to prove. But for this circumstance we might suppose the Marcolino
mentioned in the ensuing paragraph to have been a son of the younger
Maffeo.
Messer Maffeo, the uncle, was, we see, alive at this time. We do not know
the year of his death. But it is alluded to by Friar Pipino in the
Preamble to his Translation of the Book, supposed to have been executed
about 1315-1320; and we learn from a document in the Venetian archives
(see p. 77) that it must have been previous to 1318, and subsequent to
February 1309, the date of his last Will. The Will itself is not known to
be extant, but from the reference to it in this document we learn that he
left 1000 lire of public debt[2] (? imprestitorum) to a certain Marco
Polo, called Marcolino. The relationship of this Marco to old Maffeo is
not stated, but we may suspect him to have been an illegitimate son.
[Marcolino was a son of Nicolo, son of Marco the Elder; see vol. ii.,
Calendar, No. 6. - H. C.]
[Sidenote: Documentary notices of Polo at this time. The sobriquet of
Milione.]
44. In 1302 occurs what was at first supposed to be a glimpse of Marco as
a citizen, slight and quaint enough; being a resolution on the Books of
the Great Council to exempt the respectable Marco Polo from the penalty
incurred by him on account of the omission to have his water-pipe duly
inspected.
