, I. 42, quoting a MS. entitled _Petrus Ciera S. R. E. Card, de
Origine Venetorum et de Civitate Venetiarum_. Cicogna says he could
not find this MS. as it had been carried to England; and then breaks
into a diatribe against foreigners who purchase and carry away such
treasures, "not to make a serious study of them, but for mere
vain-glory ... or in order to write books contradicting the very MSS.
that they have bought, and with that dishonesty and untruth which are
so notorious!" (IV. 227.)

[2] _Campidoglio Veneto_ of Cappellari (MS. in St. Mark's Lib.), quoting
"the Venetian Annals of Giulio Faroldi."

[3] The _Genealogies_ of Marco Barbaro specify 1033 as the year of the
migration to Venice; on what authority does not appear (MS. copy in
_Museo Civico_ at Venice).

[4] _Cappellari_, u.s., and _Barbaro_. In the same century we find (1125,
1195) indications of Polos at Torcello, and of others (1160) at
Equileo, and (1179, 1206) Lido Maggiore; in 1154 a Marco Polo of
Rialto. Contemporary with these is a family of Polos (1139, 1183,
1193, 1201) at Chioggia (_Documents and Lists of Documents from
various Archives at_ Venice).

[5] See Appendix C, Nos. 4, 5, and 16. It was supposed that an autograph
of Marco as member of the Great Council had been discovered, but this
proves to be a mistake, as will be explained further on (see p. 74,
note). In those days the demarcation between Patrician and
non-Patrician at Venice, where all classes shared in commerce, all
were (generally speaking) of one race, and where there were neither
castles, domains, nor trains of horsemen, formed no wide gulf. Still
it is interesting to establish the verity of the old tradition of
Marco's technical nobility.

[6] Marco's seniority rests only on the assertion of Ramusio, who also
calls Maffeo older than Nicolo. But in Marco the Elder's Will these
two are always (3 times) specified as "_Nicolaus et Matheus_."

[7] This seems implied in the Elder Marco's Will (1280): "_Item de bonis
quae me habere contingunt_ de fraterna Compagnia _a suprascriptis
Nicolao et Matheo Paulo_," etc.

[8] In his Will he terms himself "Ego Marcus Polo quondam de
Constantinopoli."

[9] There is no real ground for doubt as to this. All the extant MSS.
agree in making Marco fifteen years old when his father returned to
Venice in 1269.

[10] Bald