[15] The portrait of Rustician here referred to would have been a precious
    illustration for our book.  But unfortunately it has not been
    transferred to MS. 6961, nor apparently to any other noticed by Paulin
    Paris.

[16] Jour.  As. as above.

[17] See Liebrecht’s Dunlop, p. 77; and MSS.  Francois, II. 349, 353. 
    The alleged gift to Rustician is also put forth by D’Israeli the Elder
    in his Amenities of Literature, 1841, I. p. 103.

[18] E.g.  Geronimo, Girolamo; and garofalo, garofano; Cristoforo,
    Cristovalo; gonfalone, gonfanone, etc.

[19] See the List in Archivio Stor.  Ital. VI. p. 64, seqq.

VIII.  NOTICES OF MARCO POLO’S HISTORY, AFTER THE TERMINATION OF HIS IMPRISONMENT AT GENOA.

43.  A few very disconnected notices are all that can be collected of matter properly biographical in relation to the quarter century during which Marco Polo survived the Genoese captivity.

[Sidenote:  Death of Marco’s Father before 1300.  Will of his brother Maffeo.]

We have seen that he would probably reach Venice in the course of August, 1299.  Whether he found his aged father alive is not known; but we know at least that a year later (31st August, 1300) Messer Nicolo was no longer in life.

This we learn from the Will of the younger Maffeo, Marco’s brother, which bears the date just named, and of which we give an abstract below.[1] It seems to imply strong regard for the testator’s brother Marco, who is made inheritor of the bulk of the property, failing the possible birth of a son.  I have already indicated some conjectural deductions from this document.  I may add that the terms of the second clause, as quoted in the note, seem to me to throw considerable doubt on the genealogy which bestows a large family of sons upon this brother Maffeo.  If he lived to have such a family it seems improbable that the draft which he thus left in the hands of a notary, to be converted into a Will in the event of his death (a curious example of the validity attaching to all acts of notaries in those days), should never have been superseded, but should actually have been so converted after his death, as the existence of the parchment seems to prove.  But for this circumstance we might suppose the Marcolino mentioned in the ensuing paragraph to have been a son of the younger Maffeo.

Messer Maffeo, the uncle, was, we see, alive at this time.  We do not know the year of his death.  But it is alluded to by Friar Pipino in the Preamble to his Translation of the Book, supposed to have been executed about 1315-1320; and we learn from a document in the Venetian archives (see p. 77) that it must have been previous to 1318, and subsequent to February 1309, the date of his last Will.  The Will itself is not known to be extant, but from the reference to it in this document we learn that he left 1000 lire of public debt[2] (_? imprestitorum_) to a certain Marco Polo, called Marcolino.  The relationship of this Marco to old Maffeo is not stated, but we may suspect him to have been an illegitimate son. [Marcolino was a son of Nicolo, son of Marco the Elder; see vol. ii., Calendar, No. 6.—­H.  C.]