The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 29

The former will be found in English at pp. 1, 2, of our Translation; but we give a part of the original below[14] for comparison with the preamble to the Romances of Meliadus, Tristan, and Lancelot, as taken from MS. 6961 (Fr. 340) of the Paris Library:--

"_Seigneurs Empereurs et Princes, Ducs et Contes et Barons et Chevaliers et Vava.s.seurs et Bourgeois, et tous les preudommes de cestui monde qui avez talent de vous deliter en rommans, si prenez cestui (livre) et le faites lire de chief en chief, si orrez toutes les grans aventure_ qui advindrent entre les Chevaliers errans du temps au Roy Uter Pendragon, jusques a le temps au Roy Artus son fils, et des compaignons de la Table Ronde. Et sachiez tout vraiment que cist livres fust translatez du livre Monseigneur Edouart le Roy d'Engleterre en cellui temps qu'il pa.s.sa oultre la mer au service nostre Seigneur Damedieu pour conquester le Sant Sepulcre, et Maistre Rusticiens de Pise, lequel est ymaginez yci dessus,[15] compila ce rommant, car il en translata toutes les merveilleuses nouvelles et aventures qu'il trouva en celle livre et traita tout certainement de toutes les aventures du monde, et si sachiez qu'il traitera plus de Monseigneur Lancelot du Lac, et Mons'r Tristan le fils au Roy Meliadus de Leonnoie que d'autres, porcequ'ilz furent sans faille les meilleurs chevaliers qui a ce temps furent en terre; et li Maistres en dira de ces deux pluseurs choses et pluseurs nouvelles que l'en treuvera escript en tous les autres livres; et porce que le Maistres les trouva escript au Livre d'Engleterre."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Palazzo di S Giorgio Genoa]

"Certainly," Paulin Paris observes, "there is a singular a.n.a.logy between these two prefaces. And it must be remarked that the formula is not an ordinary one with translators, compilers, or authors of the 13th and 14th centuries. Perhaps you would not find a single other example of it."[16]

This seems to place beyond question the ident.i.ty of the Romance-compiler of Prince Edward's suite in 1270, and the Prisoner of Genoa in 1298.

[Sidenote: Further particulars concerning Rustician.]

42. In Dunlop's History of Fiction a pa.s.sage is quoted from the preamble of _Meliadus_, as set forth in the Paris printed edition of 1528, which gives us to understand that Rusticien de Pise had received as a reward for some of his compositions from King Henry III. the prodigal gift of two _chateaux_. I gather, however, from pa.s.sages in the work of Paulin Paris that this must certainly be one of those confusions of persons to which I have referred before, and that the recipient of the chateaux was in reality Helye de Borron, the author of some of the originals which Rustician manipulated.[17] This supposed incident in Rustician's scanty history must therefore be given up.

We call this worthy _Rustician_ or _Rusticiano_, as the nearest probable representation in Italian form of the _Rusticien_ of the Round-Table MSS.

and the _Rustacians_ of the old text of Polo. But it is highly probable that his real name was _Rustich.e.l.lo_, as is suggested by the form _Rustichelus_ in the early Latin version published by the _Societe de Geographie_. The change of one liquid for another never goes for much in Italy,[18] and Rustich.e.l.lo might easily Gallicize himself as Rusticien. In a very long list of Pisan officials during the Middle Ages I find several bearing the name of _Rustich.e.l.lo_ or _Rustich.e.l.li_, but no _Rusticiano_ or _Rustigiano_.[19]

Respecting him we have only to add that the peace between Genoa and Venice was speedily followed by a treaty between Genoa and Pisa. On the 31st July, 1299, a truce for twenty-five years was signed between those two Republics. 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 t.i.the 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. _a.s.san, 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 doc.u.ments 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 fict.i.tious 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 pa.s.sage 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 a.s.sez 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 Ga.s.se 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 pa.s.sage 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. lx.x.xvi.-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 ill.u.s.tration 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.

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 doc.u.ment. 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 circ.u.mstance 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 doc.u.ment 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. The Will itself is not known to be extant, but from the reference to it in this doc.u.ment we learn that he left 1000 _lire_ of public debt[2] (_? imprest.i.torum_) to a certain Marco Polo, called _Marcolino_. The relations.h.i.+p of this Marco to old Maffeo is not stated, but we may suspect him to have been an illegitimate son.

[Marcolino was a son of Nicolo, son of Marco the Elder; see vol. ii., _Calendar_, No. 6.--H. C.]

[Sidenote: Doc.u.mentary notices of Polo at this time. The sobriquet of Milione.]

44. In 1302 occurs what was at first supposed to be a glimpse of Marco as a citizen, slight and quaint enough; being a resolution on the Books of the Great Council to exempt the respectable Marco Polo from the penalty incurred by him on account of the omission to have his water-pipe duly inspected. But since our Marco's claims to the designation of _n.o.bilis Vir_ have been established, there is a doubt whether the _providus vir_ or _prud'-homme_ here spoken of may not have been rather his namesake Marco Polo of Cannareggio or S. Geremia, of whose existence we learn from another entry of the same year.[3] It is, however, possible that Marco the Traveller was called to the Great Council _after_ the date of the doc.u.ment in question.

We have seen that the Traveller, and after him his House and his Book, acquired from his contemporaries the surname, or nickname rather, of _Il Milione_. Different writers have given different explanations of the origin of this name; some, beginning with his contemporary Fra Jacopo d'Acqui, (supra, p. 54), ascribing it to the family's having brought home a fortune of a million of _lire_, in fact to their being _millionaires_.

This is the explanation followed by Sansovino, Marco Barbaro, Coronelli, and others.[4] More far-fetched is that of Fontanini, who supposes the name to have been given to the Book as containing a great number of stories, like the _Cento Novelle_ or the _Thousand and One Nights!_ But there can be no doubt that Ramusio's is the true, as it is the natural, explanation; and that the name was bestowed on Marco by the young wits of his native city, because of his frequent use of a word which appears to have been then unusual, in his attempts to convey an idea of the vast wealth and magnificence of the Kaan's Treasury and Court.[5] Ramusio has told us that he had seen Marco styled by this sobriquet in the Books of the Signory; and it is pleasant to be able to confirm this by the next doc.u.ment which we cite. This is an extract from the Books of the Great Council under both April, 1305, condoning the offence of a certain Bonocio of Mestre in smuggling wine, for whose penalty one of the sureties had been the n.o.bILIS VIR MARCHUS PAULO MILIONI.[6]

It is alleged that long after our Traveller's death there was always, in the Venetian Masques, one individual who a.s.sumed the character of Marco Milioni, and told Munchausenlike stories to divert the vulgar. Such, if this be true, was the honour of our prophet among the populace of his own country.[7]

45. A little later we hear of Marco once more, as presenting a copy of his Book to a n.o.ble Frenchman in the service of Charles of Valois.

[Sidenote: Polo's relations with Thibault de Cepoy.]

This Prince, brother of Philip the Fair, in 1301 had married Catharine, daughter and heiress of Philip de Courtenay, t.i.tular Emperor of Constantinople, and on the strength of this marriage had at a later date set up his own claim to the Empire of the East. To this he was prompted by Pope Clement V., who in the beginning of 1306 wrote to Venice, stimulating that Government to take part in the enterprise. In the same year, Charles and his wife sent as their envoys to Venice, in connection with this matter, a n.o.ble knight called THIBAULT DE CEPOY, along with an ecclesiastic of Chartres called Pierre le Riche, and these two succeeded in executing a treaty of alliance with Venice, of which the original, dated 14th December, 1306, exists at Paris. Thibault de Cepoy eventually went on to Greece with a squadron of Venetian Galleys, but accomplished nothing of moment, and returned to his master in 1310.[8]