The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 179 (Color Image)

0179	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1

CAPTIVITY OF MARCO POLO

The date I'ICCLXXXXVI assigned 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 circumstances

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.*

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 LXXXXVI is as certainly a mistake for LXXXXIV

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

passage 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.

VII. RUSTICIANO OR RUSTICHELLO OF PISA, MARCO POLO'S FELLOW-

PRISONER AT GENOA, THE SCRIBE WHO WROTE DOWN THE TRAVELS.

38. We have now to say something of that Rusticiano to

whom all who value Polo's book are so much indebted.

The relations between Genoa and Pisa had long been so

" E ter ineio esse aregvordenti De si grande scacho mato Correa mille duxenti

Zonto çe novanta e qualro."

The Armenian Prince Ilayton or Ihkhunl has put it under 1293. (See Langlois, 11Icm. sur les _ elations de Gcnes avec 1r Penile-<Ar»zénie.)

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