It was a very different matter from that between Genoa and
Venice, and contained much that was humiliating and detrimental to Pisa.
But it embraced the release of prisoners; and those of Meloria, reduced it
is said to less than one tithe of their original number, had their liberty
at last. Among the prisoners then released no doubt Rustician was one. But
we hear of him no more.
[1] B. Marangone, Croniche della C. di Pisa, in Rerum Ital. Script. of
Tartini, Florence, 1748, i. 563; Dal Borgo, Dissert. sopra
l'Istoria Pisana, ii. 287.
[2] The list of the whole number is preserved in the Doria archives, and
has been published by Sign. Jacopo D'Oria. Many of the Baptismal names
are curious, and show how far sponsors wandered from the Church
Calendar. Assan, Alton, Turco, Soldan seem to come of the constant
interest in the East. Alaone, a name which remained in the family
for several generations, I had thought certainly borrowed from the
fierce conqueror of the Khalif (infra, p. 63). But as one Alaone,
present at this battle, had a son also there, he must surely have been
christened before the fame of Hulaku could have reached Genoa. (See
La Chiesa di S. Matteo, pp. 250, seqq.)
In documents of the kingdom of Jerusalem there are names still more
anomalous, e.g., Gualterius Baffumeth, Joannes Mahomet. (See Cod.
Dipl. del Sac. Milit. Ord. Gerosol. I. 2-3, 62.)
[3] Memorial. Potestat. Regiens. in Muratori, viii. 1162.
[4] See Fragm. Hist. Pisan. in Muratori, xxiv. 651, seqq.; and
Caffaro, id. vi. 588, 594-595. The cut in the text represents a
striking memorial of those Pisan Prisoners, which perhaps still
survives, but which at any rate existed last century in a collection
at Lucca. It is the seal of the prisoners as a body corporate:
SIGILLUM UNIVERSITATIS CARCERATORUM PISANORUM JANUE DETENTORUM, and
was doubtless used in their negotiations for peace with the Genoese
Commissioners. It represents two of the prisoners imploring the
Madonna, Patron of the Duomo at Pisa. It is from Manni, Osserv. Stor.
sopra Sigilli Antichi, etc., Firenze, 1739, tom. xii. The seal is
also engraved in Dal Borgo, op. cit. ii. 316.
[5] The Abate Spotorno in his Storia Letteraria della Liguria, II. 219,
fixes on a Genoese philosopher called Andalo del Negro, mentioned by
Boccaccio.
[6] I quote from Galignani's ed. of Prose Works, v. 712. This has
"Rusticien de Puise." In this view of the fictitious character of
the names of Rusticien and the rest, Sir Walter seems to have been
following Ritson, as I gather from a quotation in Dunlop's H. of
Fiction. (Liebrecht's German Version, p. 63.)
[7] Giron le Courtois, and the conclusion of Tristan.
[8] The passage runs thus as quoted (from the preamble of the
Meliadus - I suspect in one of the old printed editions): -
"Aussi Luces du Gau (Gas) translata en langue Francoise une partie de
l'Hystoire de Monseigneur Tristan, et moins assez qu'il ne deust.
Moult commenca bien son livre et si ny mist tout les faicts de
Tristan, ains la greigneur partie. Apres s'en entremist Messire Gasse
le Blond, qui estoit parent au Roy Henry, et divisa l'Hystoire de
Lancelot du Lac, et d'autre chose ne parla il mye grandement en son
livre. Messire Robert de Borron s'en entremist et Helye de Borron, par
la priere du dit Robert de Borron, et pource que compaignons feusmes
d'armes longuement, je commencay mon livre," etc. (Liebrecht's
Dunlop, p. 80.) If this passage be authentic it would set beyond
doubt the age of the de Borrons and the other writers of Anglo-French
Round Table Romances, who are placed by the Hist. Litteraire de la
France, and apparently by Fr. Michel, under Henry II. I have no means
of pursuing the matter, and have preferred to follow Paulin Paris, who
places them under Henry III. I notice, moreover, that the Hist.
Litt. (xv. p. 498) puts not only the de Borrons but Rustician himself
under Henry II.; and, as the last view is certainly an error, the
first is probably so too.
[9] Transc. from MS. 6975 (now Fr. 355) of Paris Library.
[10] MSS. Francois, iii. 60-61.
[11] Ibid. 56-59.
[12] Introd. pp. lxxxvi.-vii. note.
[13] See Jour. As. ser. II. tom. xii. p. 251.
[14] "Seignors Enperaor, & Rois, Dux & Marquois, Cuens, Chevaliers &
Bargions [for Borgiois] & toutes gens qe uoles sauoir les deuerses
jenerasions des homes, & les deuersites des deuerses region dou
monde, si prennes cestui lire & le feites lire & chi troueres toutes
les grandismes meruoilles," etc.
[15] The portrait of Rustician here referred to would have been a precious
illustration for our book. But unfortunately it has not been
transferred to MS. 6961, nor apparently to any other noticed by Paulin
Paris.
[16] Jour. As. as above.
[17] See Liebrecht's Dunlop, p. 77; and MSS. Francois, II. 349, 353.
The alleged gift to Rustician is also put forth by D'Israeli the Elder
in his Amenities of Literature, 1841, I. p. 103.
[18] E.g. Geronimo, Girolamo; and garofalo, garofano; Cristoforo,
Cristovalo; gonfalone, gonfanone, etc.
[19] See the List in Archivio Stor. Ital. VI. p. 64, seqq.
VIII. NOTICES OF MARCO POLO'S HISTORY, AFTER THE TERMINATION OF HIS
IMPRISONMENT AT GENOA.
43. A few very disconnected notices are all that can be collected of matter
properly biographical in relation to the quarter century during which Marco
Polo survived the Genoese captivity.
[Sidenote: Death of Marco's Father before 1300. Will of his brother
Maffeo.]
We have seen that he would probably reach Venice in the course of August,
1299. Whether he found his aged father alive is not known; but we know at
least that a year later (31st August, 1300) Messer Nicolo was no longer in
life.
