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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE TRAVELLERS 17
We have mentioned that Nicol° Polo had another legiti-
mate son, by name Maffeo, and him we infer to have been
younger than Marco, because he is named last (Marcus et
Matheus) in the Testament of their uncle Marco the Elder.
We do not know if they were by the same mother. They
could not have been so if we are right in supposing Maffeo
to have been the younger, and if Pipino's version of the
history be genuine. If however we reject the latter, as I
incline to do, no ground remains for supposing that Nicolo
went to the East much before we find him there viz., in 1260,
and Maffeo may have been born of the same mother during the
interval between 1254 and 1260. If on the other hand Pipino's
version be held to, we must suppose that Maffeo (who is
named by his uncle in i280, during his father's second absence
in the East) was born of a marriage contracted during Nicolo's
residence at home after his first journey, a residence which
lasted from 1269 to I271.*
sua praefatâ." To this Ramusio adds the further particular that the mother died in giving birth to Mark.
The interpolation is older even than Pipino's version, for we find in the rude Latin published by the Société de Géographie " quam cum Venetiis primo recessit praegnantem dimiserat." But the statement is certainly an interpolation, for it does not exist in any of the older texts ; nor have we any good reason for believing that it was an authorised interpolation. I suspect it to have been introduced to harmonise with an erroneous date for the commencement of the travels of the two brothers.
Lazari prints : " Messer Nicoló trovó the la sua donna era morta, e n'era rimasto un fanciullo di dodici anni per nome Marco, clie il padre non avea veduto mai, perchè non era ancor nato quando egli parti." These words have no equivalent in the French Texts, but are taken from one of the Italian MSS. in the Magliabecchian Library, and are I suspect also interpolated. The dodici is pure error (see p. 21 infra).
* The last view is in substance, I find, suggested by Cicogna (ii. 389).
The matter is of some interest, because in the Will of the younger Maffeo, which is extant, he makes a bequest to his uncle (Avunculus) Jordan Trevisan. This seems an indication that his mother's name may have been Trevisan. The same Maffeo had a daughter Fiordelisa. And Marco the Elder, in his Will (1280), appoints as his executors, during the absence of his brothers, the same Jordan Trevisan and his own sister-in-law Fiordelisa (" Jordanum Trivisanum de confinio S. Antonini : et Flordelisam cognatam meam "). Hence I conjecture that this cognata Fiordelisa (Trevisan ?) was the wife of the absent Nicolo, and the mother of Maffeo. In that case of course Maffeo and Marco were the sons of different mothers. With reference to the above suggestion of Nicolo's second marriage in 1269 there is a curious variation in a fragmentary Venetian Polo in the Barberini Library at Rome. It runs, in the passage corresponding to the latter part of ch. ix. of Prologue : " i quai do fratelli steteno do anni in Veniezia aspettando la elletion de nuovo Papa, nel quai tempo Mess. Nicolo si tolse moier et si la las graveda." I believe, however, that it is only a careless misrendering of Pipino's statement about Marco's birth.
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