which the apse bodily was transported without
injury, picture and all, for a distance of 25 ells, and firmly set
upon the foundations where it now exists." (_Jacopo de Varagine_ in
_Muratori_, vol. ix. 36.)
The inscription on S. Matteo regarding the battle is as follows:--"_Ad
Honorem Dei et Beate Virginis Marie Anno MCCLXXXXVIII Die Dominico VII
Septembris iste Angelus captus fuit in Gulfo Venetiarum in Civitate
Scursole et ibidem fuit prelium Galearum LXXVI Januensium cum Galeis
LXXXXVI Veneciarum. Capte fuerunt LXXXIIII per Nobilem Virum Dominum
Lambam Aurie Capitaneum et Armiratum tunc Comunis et Populi Janue cum
omnibus existentibus in eisdem, de quibus conduxit Janue homines vivos
carceratos VII cccc et Galeas XVIII, reliquas LXVI fecit cumburi in
dicto Gulfo Veneciarum. Qui obiit Sagone I. MCCCXXIII._" It is not
clear to what the _Angelus_ refers.
[24] _Rampoldi, Ann. Musulm._ ix. 217.
[25] _Jacopo Doria_, p. 280.
[26] _Murat._ xxiii. 1010. I learn from a Genoese gentleman, through my
friend Professor Henry Giglioli (to whose kindness I owe the
transcript of the inscription just given), that a faint tradition
exists as to the place of our traveller's imprisonment. It is alleged
to have been a massive building, standing between the _Grazie_ and the
Mole, and bearing the name of the _Malapaga_, which is now a barrack
for Doganieri, but continued till comparatively recent times to be
used as a civil prison. "It is certain," says my informant, "that men
of fame in arms who had fallen into the power of the Genoese _were_
imprisoned there, and among others is recorded the name of the
Corsican Giudice dalla Rocca and Lord of Cinarca, who died there in
1312;" a date so near that of Marco's imprisonment as to give some
interest to the hypothesis, slender as are its grounds. Another
Genoese, however, indicates as the scene of Marco's captivity certain
old prisons near the Old Arsenal, in a site still known as the _Vico
degli Schiavi_. (_Celesia, Dante in Liguria_, 1865, p. 43.) [Was not
the place of Polo's captivity the basement of the _Palazzo del Capitan
del Popolo_, afterwards _Palazzo del Comune al Mare_, where the
Customs (_Dogana_) had their office, and from the 15th century the
_Casa_ or _Palazzo di S. Giorgio?_--H. C.]
[27] The Treaty and some subsidiary documents are printed in
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