IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
46
INTRODUCTION
place, the Genoese took and burned.* Thus they were engaged
when word came that the Venetian fleet was in sight.
Venice, on first hearing of the Genoese armament, sent
Andrea Dandolo with a large force to join and supersede Maffeo
Quirini, who was already cruising with a squadron in the Ionian
sea ; and, on receiving further information of the strength of
the hostile expedition, the Signory hastily equipped thirty-two
more galleys in Chioggia and the ports of Dalmatia, and
despatched them to join Dandolo, making the whole number
under his command up to something like ninety-five. Recent
drafts had apparently told heavily upon the Venetian sources
of enlistment, and it is stated that many of the complements
were made up of rustics swept in haste from the Euganean hills.
To this the Genoese poet seems to allude, alleging that the
Venetians, in spite of their haughty language, had to go begging
for men and money up and down Lombardy. " Did we do like
that, think you ? " he adds :
" Beat up for aliens ? We indeed ?
When lacked we homeborn Genoese ? Search all the seas, no salts like these,
For Courage, Seacraft, Wit at need." -I.
Of one of the Venetian galleys, probably in the fleet which
sailed under Dandolo's immediate command, went Marco Polo
as Sopracorito or Gentleman-Commander. +
* 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. (Ronzanin, ii. 235.) The gallant defence of the place against the Algerines in 1571
won for Curzola from the Venetian Senate the honourable title in all documents of
fedelissima. (Paton's Adriatic, I. 47.)
t Ma sé si gran colmo avea
Perch? andava rrzendigando
No, irta' j5iù ! ajarrzo orni nostrar !)estri, valenti, e avisti,
Che mai j'ar de for n' o visti In triti ojzcj de roar.
Per terra de Lombardia
Peccunia, genie a sodi?
Pone rasente tu die l'odi
Se noi tegnamo questa via?
$ 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. (Ronzanin, 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
•
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.