THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD, POLO OF SAN GEREMIA about 145o or 146o. The latter says, " Polo : These came anciently from Dalmatia ; and for the good conduct of Master Nicolo Polo in the Genoese war of 1381 they were made of the Grand Council. The said house was extinct in the time of Master Marcho Polo, who was Castellano at Verona, in 1418. Note that after this Master Marcho changed the arms he bore that with the bend azure and the pole below and above. And yet it is one same house."1 The traveller's branch of the family is understood to have been ennobled long before 1381 and they are called nobles (nobiles viri or nobili huornini) through the fourteenth and at the beginning of the fifteenth century.' But there appears to be no quite
say that Agnesina had inherited property from Marco Polo, but do not call him her father or their brother. Yet it is likely that this Nicolo was son of a Marco (d. 18c, 57a p. 5 5 3) and certain that Agnesina was daughter of Marco of S. Geremia and Lucia his wife (d. 55a,B), and this Marco's extant will (d. B) mentions also his mother Caterina (perhaps the same as in d. 18b, though no child is there named) and his brother Nicoleto. Whether this Marco's father had been a half-brother of Iacomo and the others, or in what other way his brother and daughter were their nephew and niece I do not know.
The documentary evidence relating to Marco the Castellano at Verona is unsatisfactory, and his place in the family is conjectural. The Venetian family histories, of which some have been quoted, seem to be unanimous in connecting him closely with Nicolò of S. Geremia, ennobled in 1381, and in saying that the family was extinct with his death in or about 1418. Bartolomeo, who was about sixteen years old in 1414, may have died before 1418.
1 Add. 12475 fol. 31v0 : Polo questi veneron antigamente de dalmatia e per lo bon portamento fece misr nic° polo a la guera de jenouexi del 1381 furno fatti del gran Consegio mancho la dita chaxada in tenpo di miser marcho polo siando chastelan a verona del 14z8. nota che da poi questo miser marcho mudo l arma portaua quela con la sbara asura et le pole de soto & de sora. e tuti e vna chaxada medema. Marino SANUDO (MUR. Rerum Ital. Script. XXII. p. 426) writes to the same effect in 1522. Or. p. i note 2, shows that Dalmatia is supported by no document.
2 Cf. G. A. CAPPELLARI Il Campidoglio Veneto, c. 1710 (Venice, Bib. Marciana, cod. 8306, vol. III.) : Si come è dacredere, che si nominassero anco dal Duce Paolo i Poli che hebbe le sue habitationi nella Contrada di S. Geremia, et al chiudere del Gran Consiglio, prou() la disgratia di rimanere esclusa dallo stesso, ma in parte ui fú poi riassunta l'anno.1381.por la guerra de' Genouesi ; . . . Nicol() Polo da s. Geremia, figliuolo di Alnuor(), essendo nauigante ()sia Patron di Nani, nella periculosa guerra di Chioggia con li Genouesi senti la Republica, con un famiglio per sei mesi a tutte sue spese, sopra il lido; dono liberamente tutti li suoi imprestidi fatti, e da farsi, sino a guerra finita; offerendosi di andare sopra l'armata, con due famigli a tutte sue spese, et di pagare per due mesi otto Balestrieri, a Ducati otto per cadauno al mese, come pure.25.huomini da remo per un mese, alla paga della Signoria, onde ballotato in senatol'anno. 1381. fu riceuuto al Consiglio, con .6o. uoti pro et .24. contro. But both these places seem to refer to the S. Geremia branch only. Marcus Paullo occurs several times in the Minute Books of the Grand Council in the last years of the 13th century, both as a witness and as a member of the cancellation committee, but it has not been possible to identify him. (pl.c,.)
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