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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. I.
VENTURE OF TIIE TWO BROTHERS PGLO 3
No'rE 1.—Baldwin II. (de Courtenay), the last Latin Emperor of Constantinople, reigned from 1237 to 1261, when he was expelled by Michael Palaeologus.
The date in the text is, as we sec, that of the Brothers' voyage across the Black Sea. It stands 125o in all the chief texts. But the figure is certainly wrong. We shall see that, when the Brothers return to Venice in 1269, they find Mark, who, according to Ramusio's version, was born after their deI arlure, a lad of fifteen. Hence, if we rely on Ramusio, they must have left Venice about i 253-54. And we shall see also that they reached the Volga in 1261. IIenee their start from Constantinople may well have occurred in 1260, and this I have adopted as the most probable correction. Where they spent the interval between 1254 (if they really left Venice so early) and 126o, nowhere appears. But as their brother, Mark the Elder, in his Will styles himself " whilo»a of Constantinople," their headquarters were probably there.
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f
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Casty of Soldaia or Sudak.
s~ a
NOTE 2.—In the Middle Ages the Euxine was frequently called Glare Magnum
or Majus. Thus Chaucer :-
"In the GRETE SEE,
At many a noble Armee hadde he be."
The term Black Sea (Mare Maurum v. Nigrum) was, however, in use, and Abulfeda says it was general in his day. That name has been alleged to appear as early as the loth century, in the form KOT€LP7)) "The Dark Sea " ; but an examination of the passage cited, from Constantine Porphyrogenitus, shows that it refers rather to the Baltic, whilst that author elsewhere calls the Euxine simply Pontus. (Reinaud's Abulf. I. 38 ; Const. Porph. De Adni. Imp. c. 31, c. 42.)
-;- Sodaya, Soldaia, or Soldachia, called by Orientals Szkiák, stands on the S.F.
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VOL. I,
A 2
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