Certain porticoes and stairs on the other to the Court and
common alley leading to the Church of S. Giovanni Grisostomo, and abutting
in two places on the Ca' Polo, the property of her husband and Stefano,
will apply perfectly to a building occupying the western portion of the
area on which now stands the Theatre, and perhaps forming the western side
of a Court of which Casa Polo formed the other three sides.[8]
We know nothing more of Polo till we find him appearing a year or two
later in rapid succession as the Captain of a Venetian Galley, as a
prisoner of war, and as an author.
[1] Marco Barbaro's story related at p. 25 speaks of the Ca' Million as
built by the travellers.
From a list of parchments existing in the archives of the Casa di
Ricovero, or Great Poor House, at Venice, Comm. Berchet obtained the
following indication: -
"No. 94. Marco Galetti invests Marco Polo S. of Nicolo with the
ownership of his possessions (beni) in S. Giovanni Grisostomo; 10
September, 1319; drawn up by the Notary Nicolo, priest of S.
Canciano."
This document would perhaps have thrown light on the matter, but
unfortunately recent search by several parties has failed to trace it.
[The document has been discovered since: see vol. ii., Calendar,
No. 6. - H. C.]
[2] - "Sua casa che era posta nel confin di S. Giovanni Chrisostomo,
che hor fa l'anno s'abbrugio totalmente, con gran danno di molti."
(Doglioni, Hist. Venetiana, Ven. 1598, pp. 161-162.)
"1596. 7 Nov. Senato (Arsenal ... ix c. 159 t).
"Essendo conveniente usar qualche ricognizione a quelli della
maestranza del-l'Arsenal nostro, che prontamente sono concorsi all'
incendio occorso ultimamente a S. Zuane Grizostomo nelli stabeli detti
di CA' MILION dove per la relazion fatta nell collegio nostro dalli
patroni di esso Arsenal hanno nell' estinguere il foco prestato ogni
buon servitio...." - (Comm. by Cav. Cecchetti through Comm. Berchet.)
[3] See a paper by G. C. (the Engineer Giovanni Casoni) in Teatro
Emeronitio Almanacco par l'Anno 1835.
[4] This Cross is engraved by Mr. Ruskin in vol. ii. of the Stones of
Venice: see p. 139, and Pl. xi. Fig. 4.
[5] Casoni's only doubt was whether the Corte del Millioni was what is
now the Sabbionera, or the interior area of the theatre. The latter
seems most probable.
One Illustration of this volume, p. 1, shows the archway in the Corte
Sabbionera, and also the decorations of the soffit.
[6] See Ruskin, iii. 320.
[7] Comm. Barozzi writes: "Among us, contracts between husband and wife
are and were very common, and recognized by law. The wife sells to the
husband property not included in dowry, or that she may have
inherited, just as any third person might."
[8] See Appendix C, No. 16.
V. DIGRESSION CONCERNING THE WAR-GALLEYS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN STATES IN
THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Sidenote: Arrangement of the Rowers in Mediaeval Galleys: a separate oar
to every man.]
25. And before entering on this new phase of the Traveller's biography it
may not be without interest that we say something regarding the equipment
of those galleys which are so prominent in the mediaeval history of the
Mediterranean.[1]
Eschewing that "Serbonian Bog, where armies whole have sunk" of Books and
Commentators, the theory of the classification of the Biremes and Triremes
of the Ancients, we can at least assert on secure grounds that in
mediaeval armament, up to the middle of the 16th century or thereabouts,
the characteristic distinction of galleys of different calibres, so far as
such differences existed, was based on the number of rowers that sat on
one bench pulling each his separate oar, but through one portella or
rowlock-port.[2] And to the classes of galleys so distinguished the
Italians, of the later Middle Age at least, did certainly apply, rightly
or wrongly, the classical terms of Bireme, Trireme, and Quinquereme,
in the sense of galleys having two men and two oars to a bench, three men
and three oars to a bench, and five men and five oars to a bench.[3]
That this was the mediaeval arrangement is very certain from the details
afforded by Marino Sanudo the Elder, confirmed by later writers and by
works of art. Previous to 1290, Sanudo tells us, almost all the galleys
that went to the Levant had but two oars and men to a bench; but as it had
been found that three oars and men to a bench could be employed with great
advantage, after that date nearly all galleys adopted this arrangement,
which was called ai Terzaruoli.[4]
Moreover experiments made by the Venetians in 1316 had shown that four
rowers to a bench could be employed still more advantageously. And where
the galleys could be used on inland waters, and could be made more bulky,
Sanudo would even recommend five to a bench, or have gangs of rowers on
two decks with either three or four men to the bench on each deck.
[Sidenote: Change of System in the 16th century.]
26. This system of grouping the oars, and putting only one man to an oar,
continued down to the 16th century, during the first half of which came in
the more modern system of using great oars, equally spaced, and requiring
from four to seven men each to ply them, in the manner which endured till
late in the last century, when galleys became altogether obsolete. Captain
Pantero Pantera, the author of a work on Naval Tactics (1616), says he had
heard, from veterans who had commanded galleys equipped in the antiquated
fashion, that three men to a bench, with separate oars, answered better
than three men to one great oar, but four men to one great oar (he says)
were certainly more efficient than four men with separate oars.
