[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 3l. 15s.; 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.

[16] The form of the name Ysabeta aptly illustrates the transition that seems so strange from Elizabeth into the Isabel that the Spaniards made of it.

[17] I.e. the extent of what was properly called the Dogado, all along the Lagoons from Grado on the extreme east to Capo d'Argine (Cavarzere at the mouth of the Adige) on the extreme west.

[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.

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