The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 27

[Sidenote: Marco Polo in prison dictates his book to Rusticiano of Pisa.

Release of Venetian prisoners.]

36. Howsoever they may have been treated, here was Marco Polo one of those many thousand prisoners in Genoa; and here, before long, he appears to have made acquaintance with a man of literary propensities, whose destiny had brought him into the like plight, by name RUSTICIANO or RUSTICh.e.l.lO of Pisa. It was this person perhaps who persuaded the Traveller to defer no longer the reduction to writing of his notable experiences; but in any case it was he who wrote down those experiences at Marco's dictation; it is he therefore to whom we owe the preservation of this record, and possibly even that of the Traveller's very memory. This makes the Genoese imprisonment so important an episode in Polo's biography.

To Rusticiano we shall presently recur. But let us first bring to a conclusion what may be gathered as to the duration of Polo's imprisonment.

It does not appear whether Pope Boniface made any new effort for accommodation between the Republics; but other Italian princes did interpose, and Matteo Visconti, Captain-General of Milan, styling himself Vicar-General of the Holy Roman Empire in Lombardy, was accepted as Mediator, along with the community of Milan. Amba.s.sadors from both States presented themselves at that city, and on the 25th May, 1299, they signed the terms of a Peace.

These terms were perfectly honourable to Venice, being absolutely equal and reciprocal; from which one is apt to conclude that the damage to the City of the Sea was rather to her pride than to her power; the success of Genoa, in fact, having been followed up by no systematic attack upon Venetian commerce.[27] Among the terms was the mutual release of prisoners on a day to be fixed by Visconti after the completion of all formalities.

This day is not recorded, but as the Treaty was ratified by the Doge of Venice on the 1st July, and the latest extant doc.u.ment connected with the formalities appears to be dated 18th July, we may believe that before the end of August Marco Polo was restored to the family mansion in S. Giovanni Grisostomo.

[Sidenote: Grounds on which the story of Marco Polo's capture at Curzola rests.]

37. Something further requires to be said before quitting this event in our Traveller's life. For we confess that a critical reader may have some justification in asking what evidence there is that Marco Polo ever fought at Curzola, and ever was carried a prisoner to Genoa from that unfortunate action?

A learned Frenchman, whom we shall have to quote freely in the immediately ensuing pages, does not venture to be more precise in reference to the meeting of Polo and Rusticiano than to say of the latter: "In 1298, being in durance in the Prison of Genoa, he there became acquainted with Marco Polo, whom the Genoese had deprived of his liberty _from motives equally unknown_."[28]

To those who have no relish for biographies that round the meagre skeleton of authentic facts with a plump padding of what _might have been_, this sentence of Paulin Paris is quite refreshing in its stern limitation to positive knowledge. And certainly no contemporary authority has yet been found for the capture of our Traveller at Curzola. Still I think that the fact is beyond reasonable doubt.

Ramusio's biographical notices certainly contain many errors of detail; and some, such as the many years' interval which he sets between the Battle of Curzola and Marco's return, are errors which a very little trouble would have enabled him to eschew. But still it does seem reasonable to believe that the main fact of Marco's command of a galley at Curzola, and capture there, was derived from a genuine tradition, if not from doc.u.ments.

Let us then turn to the words which close Rusticiano's preamble (see _post_, p. 2):--"Lequel (Messire Marc) puis demorant en le charthre de Jene, fist retraire toutes cestes chouses a Messire Rustacians de Pise que en celle meissme charthre estoit, au tens qu'il avoit 1298 anz que Jezu eut vesqui." These words are at least thoroughly consistent with Marco's capture at Curzola, as regards both the position in which they present him, and the year in which he is thus presented.

There is however another piece of evidence, though it is curiously indirect.

The Dominican Friar Jacopo of Acqui was a contemporary of Polo's, and was the author of a somewhat obscure Chronicle called _Imago Mundi_.[29] Now this Chronicle does contain mention of Marco's capture in action by the Genoese, but attributes it to a different action from Curzola, and one fought at a time when Polo could not have been present. The pa.s.sage runs as follows in a ma.n.u.script of the Ambrosian Library, according to an extract given by Baldelli Boni:--

"In the year of Christ MCCLx.x.xXVI, in the time of Pope Boniface VI., of whom we have spoken above, a battle was fought in Arminia, at the place called Layaz, between xv. galleys of Genoese merchants and xxv. of Venetian merchants; and after a great fight the galleys of the Venetians were beaten, and (the crews) all slain or taken; and among them was taken Messer Marco the Venetian, who was in company with those merchants, and who was called _Milono_, which is as much as to say 'a thousand thousand pounds,' for so goes the phrase in Venice. So this Messer Marco Milono the Venetian, with the other Venetian prisoners, is carried off to the prison of Genoa, and there kept for a long time. This Messer Marco was a long time with his father and uncle in Tartary, and he there saw many things, and made much wealth, and also learned many things, for he was a man of ability. And so, being in prison at Genoa, he made a Book concerning the great wonders of the World, i.e., concerning such of them as he had seen. And what he told in the Book was not as much as he had really seen, because of the tongues of detractors, who, being ready to impose their own lies on others, are over hasty to set down as lies what they in their perversity disbelieve, or do not understand. And because there are many great and strange things in that Book, which are reckoned past all credence, he was asked by his friends on his death-bed to correct the Book by removing everything that went beyond the facts. To which his reply was that he had not told _one-half_ of what he had really seen!"[30]

This statement regarding the capture of Marco _at the Battle of Ayas_ is one which cannot be true, for we know that he did not reach Venice till 1295, travelling from Persia by way of Trebizond and the Bosphorus, whilst the Battle of Ayas of which we have purposely given some detail, was fought in May, 1294. The date MCCLx.x.xXVI a.s.signed to it in the preceding extract has given rise to some unprofitable discussion. Could that date be accepted, no doubt it would enable us also to accept this, the sole statement from the Traveller's own age of the circ.u.mstances which brought him into a Genoese prison; it would enable us to place that imprisonment within a few months of his return from the East, and to extend its duration to three years, points which would thus accord better with the general tenor of Ramusio's tradition than the capture of Curzola. But the matter is not open to such a solution. The date of the Battle of Ayas is not more doubtful than that of the Battle of the Nile. It is clearly stated by several independent chroniclers, and is carefully established in the Ballad that we have quoted above.[31] We shall see repeatedly in the course of this Book how uncertain are the transcriptions of dates in Roman numerals, and in the present case the Lx.x.xXVI is as certainly a mistake for Lx.x.xXIV as is Boniface VI. in the same quotation a mistake for Boniface VIII.

But though we cannot accept the statement that Polo was taken prisoner at _Ayas, in the spring of 1294_, we may accept the pa.s.sage as evidence from a contemporary source that he was _taken prisoner in some sea-fight with the Genoese_, and thus admit it in corroboration of the Ramusian Tradition of his capture in a sea-fight at Curzola in 1298, which is perfectly consistent with all other facts in our possession.

[1] In this part of these notices I am repeatedly indebted to _Heyd._ (See supra, p. 9.)

[2] On or close to the Hill called _Monjoie_; see the plan from Marino Sanudo at p. 18.

[3] "Throughout that year there were not less than 40 machines all at work upon the city of Acre, battering its houses and its towers, and smashing and overthrowing everything within their range. There were at least ten of those engines that shot stones so big and heavy that they weighed a good 1500 lbs. by the weight of Champagne; insomuch that nearly all the towers and forts of Acre were destroyed, and only the religious houses were left. And there were slain in this same war good 20,000 men on the two sides, but chiefly of Genoese and Spaniards."

(_Lettre de Jean Pierre Sarrasin_, in _Michel's Joinville_, p. 308.)

[4] The origin of these columns is, however, somewhat uncertain.

[See _Cicogna_, I. p. 379.]

[5] In 1262, when a Venetian squadron was taken by the Greek fleet in alliance with the Genoese, the whole of the survivors of the captive crews were _blinded_ by order of Palaeologus. (_Roman._ ii. 272.)

[6] See pp. 16, 41, and Plan of Ayas at beginning of Bk. I.

[7] See _Archivio Storico Italiano_, Appendice, tom. iv.

[8] Niente ne resta a prender Se no li corpi de li legni: Preixi som senza difender; De bruxar som tute degni!

Como li fom aproximai Queli si levan lantor Como leon descaenai Tuti criando "_Alor! Alor!_"

This _Alor! Alor!_ ("Up, Boys, and at 'em"), or something similar, appears to have been the usual war-cry of both parties. So a trumpet-like poem of the Troubadour warrior Bertram de Born, whom Dante found in such evil plight below (xxviii. 118 seqq.), in which he sings with extraordinary spirit the joys of war:--

"Le us die que tan no m'a sabor Manjars, ni beure, ni dormir, c.u.m a quant ang cridar, ALOR!

D'ambas la partz; et aug agnir Cavals voits per l'ombratge...."

"I tell you a zest far before Aught of slumber, or drink, or of food, I s.n.a.t.c.h when the shouts of ALOR Ring from both sides: and out of the wood Comes the neighing of steeds dimly seen...."

In a galley fight at Tyre in 1258, according to a Latin narrative, the Genoese shout "Ad arma, ad arma! _ad ipsos, ad ipsos!_" The cry of the Venetians before engaging the Greeks is represented by Martino da Ca.n.a.le, in his old French, as "_or a yaus! or a yaus!_" that of the Genoese on another occasion as _Aur! Aur!_ and this last is the shout of the Catalans also in Ramon de Muntaner. (_Villemain, Litt. du Moyen Age_, i. 99; _Archiv. Stor. Ital._ viii. 364, 506; _Pertz, Script._ xviii. 239; _Muntaner_, 269, 287.) Recently in a Sicilian newspaper, narrating an act of gallant and successful reprisal (only too rare) by country folk on a body of the brigands who are such a scourge to parts of the island, I read that the honest men in charging the villains raised a shout of "_Ad iddi! Ad iddi!_"

[9] A phrase curiously identical, with a similar sequence, is attributed to an Austrian General at the battle of Skalitz in 1866. (_Stoffel's Letters._)

[10] E no me posso aregordar Dalcuno romanzo vertade Donde oyse uncha cointar Alcun triumfo si sobre!

[11] _Stella_ in _Muratori_, xvii. 984.

[12] _Dandulo_, Ibid. xii. 404-405.

[13] Or entram con gran vigor, En De sperando aver triumpho, Queli zerchando inter lo Gorfo Chi menazeram zercha lor!

And in the next verse note the pure Scotch use of the word _bra_:--

Siche da Otranto se partim Quella bra compagnia, Per a.s.sar in Ihavonia, D'Avosto a vinte nove di.

[14] The island of Curzola now counts about 4000 inhabitants; the town half the number. It was probably reckoned a dependency of Venice at this time. The King of Hungary had renounced his claims on the Dalmatian coasts by treaty in 1244. (_Romanin_, ii. 235.) The gallant defence of the place against the Algerines in 1571 won for Curzola from the Venetian Senate the honourable t.i.tle in all doc.u.ments of _fedelissima_. (_Paton's Adriatic_, I. 47.)

[15] Ma se si gran colmo avea Perche andava mendigando

Per terra de Lombardia Peccunia, gente a sodi?

Pone mente tu che l'odi Se noi tegnamo questa via?

No, ma piu! ajamo omi nostrar Destri, valenti, e avisti, Che mai par de lor n' o visti In tuti officj de mar.

[16] In July 1294, a Council of Thirty decreed that galleys should be equipped by the richest families in proportion to their wealth. Among the families held to equip one galley each, or one galley among two or more, in this list, is the CA' POLO. But this was before the return of the travellers from the East, and just after the battle of Ayas.

(_Romanin_, ii. 332; this author misdates Ayas, however.) When a levy was required in Venice for any expedition the heads of each _contrada_ divided the male inhabitants, between the ages of twenty and sixty, into groups of twelve each, called _duodene_. The dice were thrown to decide who should go first on service. He who went received five _lire_ a month from the State, and one _lira_ from each of his colleagues in the _duodena_. Hence his pay was sixteen _lire_ a month, about 2_s._ a day in silver value, if these were _lire ai grossi_, or 1_s._ 4_d._ 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 ent.i.tled 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 Pa.s.sa 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.