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in those days), should never have been superseded, but should actually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.
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