(See Lib. Jur. II. 344, seqq.) Muratori in his
Annals has followed John Villani (Bk. VIII. ch. 27) in representing
the terms as highly unfavourable to Venice. But for this there is no
foundation in the documents. And the terms are stated with substantial
accuracy in Navagiero. (Murat. Script. xxiii. 1011.)
[28] Paulin Paris, Les Manuscrits Francois de la Bibliotheque du Roi,
ii. 355.
[29] Though there is no precise information as to the birth or death of
this writer, who belonged to a noble family of Lombardy, the
Bellingeri, he can be traced with tolerable certainty as in life in
1289, 1320, and 1334. (See the Introduction to his Chronicle in the
Turin Monumenta, Scriptores III.)
[30] There is another MS. of the Imago Mundi at Turin, which has been
printed in the Monumenta. The passage about Polo in that copy
differs widely in wording, is much shorter, and contains no date. But
it relates his capture as having taken place at La Glaza, which I
think there can be no doubt is also intended for Ayas (sometimes
called Giazza), a place which in fact is called Glaza in three of
the MSS. of which various readings are given in the edition of the
Societe de Geographie (p. 535).
[31] "E per meio esse aregordenti
De si grande scacho mato
Correa mille duxenti
Zonto ge novanta e quatro."
The Armenian Prince Hayton or Hethum has put it under 1293. (See
Langlois, Mem. sur les Relations de Genes avec la Petite-Armenie.)
VII. RUSTICIANO OR RUSTICHELLO OF PISA, MARCO POLO'S FELLOW-PRISONER AT
GENOA, THE SCRIBE WHO WROTE DOWN THE TRAVELS.
38. We have now to say something of that Rusticiano to whom all who value
Polo's book are so much indebted.
[Sidenote: Rusticiano, perhaps a prisoner from Meloria.]
The relations between Genoa and Pisa had long been so hostile that it was
only too natural in 1298 to find a Pisan in the gaol of Genoa. An unhappy
multitude of such prisoners had been carried thither fourteen years
before, and the survivors still lingered there in vastly dwindled numbers.
In the summer of 1284 was fought the battle from which Pisa had to date
the commencement of her long decay. In July of that year the Pisans, at a
time when the Genoese had no fleet in their own immediate waters, had
advanced to the very port of Genoa and shot their defiance into the proud
city in the form of silver-headed arrows, and stones belted with
scarlet.[1] They had to pay dearly for this insult. The Genoese, recalling
their cruisers, speedily mustered a fleet of eighty-eight galleys, which
were placed under the command of another of that illustrious House of
Doria, the Scipios of Genoa as they have been called, Uberto, the elder
brother of Lamba. Lamba himself with his six sons, and another brother,
was in the fleet, whilst the whole number of Dorias who fought in the
ensuing action amounted to 250, most of them on board one great galley
bearing the name of the family patron, St. Matthew.[2]
The Pisans, more than one-fourth inferior in strength, came out boldly,
and the battle was fought off the Porto Pisano, in fact close in front of
Leghorn, where a lighthouse on a remarkable arched basement still marks
the islet of MELORIA, whence the battle got its name. The day was the 6th
of August, the feast of St. Sixtus, a day memorable in the Pisan Fasti for
several great victories. But on this occasion the defeat of Pisa was
overwhelming. Forty of their galleys were taken or sunk, and upwards of
9000 prisoners carried to Genoa. In fact so vast a sweep was made of the
flower of Pisan manhood that it was a common saying then: "Che vuol veder
Pisa, vada a Genova!" Many noble ladies of Pisa went in large companies
on foot to Genoa to seek their husbands or kinsmen: "And when they made
enquiry of the Keepers of the Prisons, the reply would be, 'Yesterday
there died thirty of them, to-day there have died forty; all of whom we
have cast into the sea; and so it is daily.'"[3]
[Illustration: Seal of the Pisan Prisoners.]
A body of prisoners so numerous and important naturally exerted themselves
in the cause of peace, and through their efforts, after many months of
negotiation, a formal peace was signed (15th April, 1288). But through the
influence, as was alleged, of Count Ugolino (Dante's) who was then in
power at Pisa, the peace became abortive; war almost immediately
recommenced, and the prisoners had no release.[4] And, when the 6000 or
7000 Venetians were thrown into the prisons of Genoa in October 1298, they
would find there the scanty surviving remnant of the Pisan Prisoners of
Meloria, and would gather from them dismal forebodings of the fate before
them.
It is a fair conjecture that to that remnant Rusticiano of Pisa may have
belonged.
We have seen Ramusio's representation of the kindness shown to Marco
during his imprisonment by a certain Genoese gentleman who also assisted
him to reduce his travels to writing. We may be certain that this Genoese
gentleman is only a distorted image of Rusticiano, the Pisan prisoner in
the gaol of Genoa, whose name and part in the history of his hero's book
Ramusio so strangely ignores. Yet patriotic Genoese writers in our own
times have striven to determine the identity of this their imaginary
countryman![5]
[Sidenote: Rusticiano, a person known from other sources.]
39. Who, then, was Rusticiano, or, as the name actually is read in the
oldest type of MS., "Messire Rustacians de Pise"?
Our knowledge of him is but scanty. Still something is known of him
besides the few words concluding his preamble to our Traveller's Book,
which you may read at pp.
![The Travels Of Marco Polo - Volume 1 Of 2 By Marco Polo And Rustichello Of Pisa
- - H. C.]
[27] The Treaty and some subsidiary documents are printed in the Genoese
Liber Jurium, forming a part of - Page 63](../images/travel.jpg)
