Hence his pay was sixteen lire a month,
about 2s. a day in silver value, if these were lire ai grossi, or
1s. 4d. if lire dei piccoli. (See Romanin, ii. 393-394.)
Money on such occasions was frequently raised by what was called an
Estimo or Facion, which was a force loan levied on the citizens in
proportion to their estimated wealth; and for which they were entitled
to interest from the State.
[17] Several of the Italian chroniclers, as Ferreto of Vicenza and
Navagiero, whom Muratori has followed in his "Annals," say the battle
was fought on the 8th September, the so-called Birthday of the
Madonna. But the inscription on the Church of St. Matthew at Genoa,
cited further on, says the 7th, and with this agree both Stella and
the Genoese poet. For the latter, though not specifying the day of the
month, says it was on a Sunday: -
"Lo di de Domenga era
Passa prima en l'ora bona
Stormezam fin provo nona
Con bataio forte e fera."
Now the 7th September, 1298, fell on a Sunday.
[18] Ma li pensavam grande error
Che in fuga se fussem tuti metui
Che de si lonzi eram vegnui
Per cerchali a casa lor.
[19] "Note here that the Genoese generally, commonly, and by nature, are
the most covetous of Men, and the Love of Gain spurs them to every
Crime. Yet are they deemed also the most valiant Men in the World.
Such an one was Lampa, of that very Doria family, a man of an high
Courage truly. For when he was engaged in a Sea-Fight against the
Venetians, and was standing on the Poop of his Galley, his Son,
fighting valiantly at the Forecastle, was shot by an Arrow in the
Breast, and fell wounded to the Death; a Mishap whereat his Comrades
were sorely shaken, and Fear came upon the whole Ship's Company. But
Lampa, hot with the Spirit of Battle, and more mindful of his
Country's Service and his own Glory than of his Son, ran forward to
the spot, loftily rebuked the agitated Crowd, and ordered his Son's
Body to be cast into the Deep, telling them for their Comfort that the
Land could never have afforded his Boy a nobler Tomb. And then,
renewing the Fight more fiercely than ever, he achieved the Victory."
(Benvenuto of Imola, in Comment. on Dante. in Muratori, Antiq. i.
1146.)
("Yet like an English General will I die,
And all the Ocean make my spacious Grave;
Women and Cowards on the Land may lie,
The Sea's the Tomb that's proper for the Brave!"
- Annus Mirabilis.)
[20] The particulars of the battle are gathered from Ferretus
Vicentinus, in Murat. ix. 985 seqq.; And. Dandulo, in xii.
407-408; Navagiero, in xxiii. 1009-1010; and the Genoese Poem as
before.
[21] Navagiero, u.s. Dandulo says, "after a few days he died of grief";
Ferretus, that he was killed in the action and buried at Curzola.
[22] For the funeral, a MS. of Cibo Recco quoted by Jacopo Doria in La
Chiesa di San Matteo descritta, etc., Genova, 1860, p. 26. For the
date of arrival the poem so often quoted: -
"De Oitover, a zoia, a seze di
Lo nostro ostel, con gran festa
En nostro porto, a or di sesta
Domine De restitui."
[23] S. Matteo was built by Martin Doria in 1125, but pulled down and
rebuilt by the family in a slightly different position in 1278. On
this occasion is recorded a remarkable anticipation of the feats of
American engineering: "As there was an ancient and very fine picture
of Christ upon the apse of the Church, it was thought a great pity
that so fine a work should be destroyed. And so they contrived an
ingenious method by which the apse bodily was transported without
injury, picture and all, for a distance of 25 ells, and firmly set
upon the foundations where it now exists." (Jacopo de Varagine in
Muratori, vol. ix. 36.)
The inscription on S. Matteo regarding the battle is as follows: - "Ad
Honorem Dei et Beate Virginis Marie Anno MCCLXXXXVIII Die Dominico VII
Septembris iste Angelus captus fuit in Gulfo Venetiarum in Civitate
Scursole et ibidem fuit prelium Galearum LXXVI Januensium cum Galeis
LXXXXVI Veneciarum. Capte fuerunt LXXXIIII per Nobilem Virum Dominum
Lambam Aurie Capitaneum et Armiratum tunc Comunis et Populi Janue cum
omnibus existentibus in eisdem, de quibus conduxit Janue homines vivos
carceratos VII cccc et Galeas XVIII, reliquas LXVI fecit cumburi in
dicto Gulfo Veneciarum. Qui obiit Sagone I. MCCCXXIII." It is not
clear to what the Angelus refers.
[24] Rampoldi, Ann. Musulm. ix. 217.
[25] Jacopo Doria, p. 280.
[26] Murat. xxiii. 1010. I learn from a Genoese gentleman, through my
friend Professor Henry Giglioli (to whose kindness I owe the
transcript of the inscription just given), that a faint tradition
exists as to the place of our traveller's imprisonment. It is alleged
to have been a massive building, standing between the Grazie and the
Mole, and bearing the name of the Malapaga, which is now a barrack
for Doganieri, but continued till comparatively recent times to be
used as a civil prison. "It is certain," says my informant, "that men
of fame in arms who had fallen into the power of 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?
