The change of one liquid for another never goes for much in
Italy,[18] and Rustichello might easily Gallicize himself as Rusticien. In
a very long list of Pisan officials during the Middle Ages I find several
bearing the name of Rustichello or Rustichelli, but no Rusticiano or
Rustigiano.[19]
Respecting him we have only to add that the peace between Genoa and Venice
was speedily followed by a treaty between Genoa and Pisa. On the 31st
July, 1299, a truce for twenty-five years was signed between those two
Republics. It was a very different matter from that between Genoa and
Venice, and contained much that was humiliating and detrimental to Pisa.
But it embraced the release of prisoners; and those of Meloria, reduced it
is said to less than one tithe of their original number, had their liberty
at last. Among the prisoners then released no doubt Rustician was one. But
we hear of him no more.
[1] B. Marangone, Croniche della C. di Pisa, in Rerum Ital. Script. of
Tartini, Florence, 1748, i. 563; Dal Borgo, Dissert. sopra
l'Istoria Pisana, ii. 287.
[2] The list of the whole number is preserved in the Doria archives, and
has been published by Sign. Jacopo D'Oria. Many of the Baptismal names
are curious, and show how far sponsors wandered from the Church
Calendar. Assan, Alton, Turco, Soldan seem to come of the constant
interest in the East. Alaone, a name which remained in the family
for several generations, I had thought certainly borrowed from the
fierce conqueror of the Khalif (infra, p. 63). But as one Alaone,
present at this battle, had a son also there, he must surely have been
christened before the fame of Hulaku could have reached Genoa. (See
La Chiesa di S. Matteo, pp. 250, seqq.)
In documents of the kingdom of Jerusalem there are names still more
anomalous, e.g., Gualterius Baffumeth, Joannes Mahomet. (See Cod.
Dipl. del Sac. Milit. Ord. Gerosol. I. 2-3, 62.)
[3] Memorial. Potestat. Regiens. in Muratori, viii. 1162.
[4] See Fragm. Hist. Pisan. in Muratori, xxiv. 651, seqq.; and
Caffaro, id. vi. 588, 594-595. The cut in the text represents a
striking memorial of those Pisan Prisoners, which perhaps still
survives, but which at any rate existed last century in a collection
at Lucca. It is the seal of the prisoners as a body corporate:
SIGILLUM UNIVERSITATIS CARCERATORUM PISANORUM JANUE DETENTORUM, and
was doubtless used in their negotiations for peace with the Genoese
Commissioners. It represents two of the prisoners imploring the
Madonna, Patron of the Duomo at Pisa. It is from Manni, Osserv. Stor.
sopra Sigilli Antichi, etc., Firenze, 1739, tom.
